we explain Nodu, the indicator that divides farmers, environmentalists and the government

Environmental associations fear that this tool for measuring the use of phytosanitary products will be replaced to satisfy agricultural unions, in the run-up to the Agricultural Show and thanks to the pause in the Ecophyto plan.

They slammed the door. Eight environmental NGOs announced, Monday February 12, that they had left a meeting of the Strategic Orientation and Monitoring Committee of the Ecophyto 2030 plan, which was held at the Ministry of Agriculture, in the presence of members of the government, elected officials and representatives of farmers and industry. They are protesting against the suspension of this plan, which aims to halve the use of pesticides by 2030 (compared to 2015-2017), announced by Gabriel Attal at the beginning of February, to appease the anger of farmers.

This indefinite pause, which comes before the opening of the Agricultural Show on February 24, should in particular allow reflection on how to measure the use of phytosanitary products by farmers, and therefore the success of the Ecophyto plan. Which could spell the end of the current indicator, the number of unit doses, or Nodu, contested by the FNSEA but defended by environmental associations.

“An estimate of the number of treatments” carried out each year

Nodu was born with the first Ecophyto plan, launched in 2008 with the objective of reducing the use of phytosanitary products by 50% in ten years. Expressed in hectares, it is obtained by calculating “the surface area which would be treated annually, with plant protection products sold over the course of a year, at the maximum approved doses”, explains the website of the Ministry of Agriculture.

“Nodu is the desire to have an estimate of the number of treatments that agriculture has carried out”summarizes Xavier Reboud, researcher in agroecology and research director at Inrae (National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment) in Dijon. It is the State services which calculate it, by analyzing the share of herbicides, fungicides and insecticides. “It allows you to know how often and at what intensity we use these products”explains Nicolas Munier-Jolain, research engineer at INRAE ​​in Dijon.

Nodu initially experienced an upward trajectory: it stood at 82 million hectares in 2009, then 100.2 in 2015 and 120.3 in 2018. A clear decline was then observed (85.7 in 2021), before an increase in 2022, to 89.4 million hectares, deplored by environmental associations. “But within the global Nodu, which is increasing, the share represented by the most problematic products is decreasing, because they are being replaced by less harmful pesticides”underlines Xavier Reboud.

“On this basis, some farmers claim to have already made great efforts by using less dangerous products.”

Xavier Reboud, researcher in agroecology

at franceinfo

The Nodu “only takes into account the volumes used, without distinction between the highest risk products, which are used in small quantities, and lower impact alternative solutions, which are used in larger volumes”denounces Arnaud Rousseau, president of the FNSEA, the main farmers’ union, in an article published by West France Sunday. “It is not an impact indicator” phytosanitary products on the environment, “but of dependence” to the latter, underlines Nicolas Munier-Jolain.

A European alternative that is causing debate

The operators therefore demanded the establishment of another indicator, the HRI-1, for Harmonized Risk Indicator (“harmonized risk indicator”). “It is proposed by the European Commission to monitor the use of phytosanitary products in Europe. Its principle is very simple: it is the quantity of active substances [vendues], but weighted by a factor of 1 to 64 depending on the dangerousness of the product“, explains Nicolas Munier-Jolain. The active substances are classified into four categories, which weigh 1, 8, 16 and 64 respectively. A detailed calculation method on the website of the Ministry of Agriculture, which no longer takes into account the notion of surface area treated.

“It’s rather relevant not to count different products in the same way”estimates Xavier Reboud, according to whom the results of the HRI-1 remain “very correlated” to those of Nodu. On the other hand, this European indicator “is widely criticized by supporters of organic farming”, observes Nicolas Munier-Jolain. In fact, pesticides which remain authorized in organic “are often heavy in weight per hectare. The danger ratio of 1 to 64 is insufficient to compensate for these heavy weights”leading to a result which evolves negatively if organic develops. The NGO Générations Futures denounces an indicator “totally misleading”Who “favors the most toxic pesticides”.

Indicators that could be complementary

If France could nevertheless adopt it, like its European neighbors, the challenge now concerns the adjustment of this new “thermometer”: how to classify each active substance on the dangerousness scale? “There will be a battle over the composition of each listwarns Xavier Reboud. Should these lists be stabilized or not? What scientific bases are missing to make them evolve? We will need to be able to compare across European countries, with harmonized criteria.”

Thus, class 2, whose substances are weighted by a factor of 8 on the scale which goes from 1 to 64, contains elements “very heterogeneous”, points out the engineer, which would distort the clarity of the indicator. This is also what environmental organizations criticize: “By changing the indicator, the government can present a plan that shows usage has decreased while the current indicator shows the opposite”recently denounced to franceinfo Dorian Guinard, professor of public law at Sciences Po Grenoble and specialist in environmental law.

In any case, Xavier Reboud defends the complementarity of HRI-1 with Nodu: “These are indicators that are not made for the same thing, but they are all interesting. You have to manage with a portfolio of indicators.” This is also the path that the government says it is taking: “The idea is not to remove Nodu, but to add other indicators to join European measurement methods”assured Monday the entourage of the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau.