Publication - Statistics

Pesticide usage in Scotland: arable crops and potato stores 2020

Published: 15 December 2021
Directorate: Agriculture and Rural Economy Directorate
Topic: Environment and climate change, Farming and rural
ISBN: 9781802016352

This publication presents information from a survey of pesticide use on arable crops and potato stores in Scotland during 2020.

Supporting documents

Appendix 2 – Survey statistics, Census and sample information

Table 28 Regional distribution of arable crops in 2020, Census area (ha) of arable crops grown in Scotland
	H&I⁽¹⁾	C&O⁽¹⁾	Moray Firth	Abdn⁽¹⁾	Angus	East Fife	Lothian	C. Low-lands⁽¹⁾	Tweed Valley	S. Uplands⁽¹⁾	Solway	Scotland 2020	Scotland 2018	% change
Winter barley	158	191	1,656	13,367	6,491	3,276	3,730	4,286	6,028	939	2,969	43,091	37,542	15
Spring barley	4,269	7,388	39,906	77,312	47,392	13,799	13,216	28,790	15,861	3,523	7,245	258,702	250,476	3
Wheat	61	*	3,872	8,111	21,439	12,816	15,494	8,099	19,603	1,050	2,976	93,538	99,778	-6
Winter oats	4	*	91	610	1,138	1,843	388	648	2,546	512	200	7,984	8,439	-5
Spring oats	465	2,331	2,140	5,103	3,462	3,378	1,391	3,869	3,101	334	424	26,000	23,661	10
Winter rye	*	0	774	902	1,245	486	89	389	733	0	515	5,137	5,786	-11
Triticale	*	0	*	114	*	0	0	152	86	*	*	448	956	-53
Winter oilseed rape	*	0	1,813	7,048	7,827	1,575	3,528	1,445	6,739	*	276	30,373	32,284	-6
Spring oilseed rape⁽²⁾	*	0	*	51	170	77	*	84	*	0	*	537	454	18
Seed potatoes	182	21	1,688	2,280	5,551	405	121	1,195	495	*	*	12,003	12,092	-1
Ware potatoes	124	33	952	469	7,785	2,333	1,440	1,293	1,630	1	233	16,294	15,268	7
Field beans	*	0	60	*	155	325	496	289	610	0	197	2,138	2,034	5
Dry harvest peas	*	*	*	84	61	*	*	*	*	*	0	328	515	-36
Lupins	*	*	0	*	*	0	0	*	0	0	0	17	*	N/A
Mixed grain	38	*	*	*	0	0	0	*	0	0	0	41	18	130
Totals	5,329	9,994	52,987	115,456	102,790	40,376	39,987	50,556	57,526	6,537	15,092	496,631	489,309	1

* To prevent disclosure of information about individual holdings, entries relating to fewer than five holdings are not reported

(1) H&I = Highlands & Islands, C&O = Caithness & Orkney, Abdn = Aberdeen, C. Lowlands = Central Lowlands, S. Uplands = Southern Uplands

(2) Includes linseed

N/A = not applicable

Table 29 Distribution of arable sample - 2020, Number of holdings surveyed in each region and size group
Size (ha)	H&I⁽¹⁾	C&O⁽¹⁾	Moray Firth	Abdn⁽¹⁾	Angus	East Fife	Lothian	C. Low-lands⁽¹⁾	Tweed Valley	S. Uplands ⁽¹⁾	Solway	Scotland
0.1-19.99	3	4	2	5	2	0	1	2	1	0	1	21
20-49.9	1	1	5	13	7	1	1	4	2	1	4	40
50-99.9	2	2	10	19	15	9	5	7	4	1	2	76
100-149.9	0	2	8	8	16	5	6	8	7	1	1	62
150+	1	1	15	13	33	7	12	6	22	2	1	113
All sizes	7	10	40	58	73	22	25	27	36	5	9	312

(1) H&I = Highlands & Islands, C&O = Caithness & Orkney, Abdn = Aberdeen, C. Lowlands = Central Lowlands, S. Uplands = Southern Uplands

Table 30 Sampled area - 2020, Area (ha) of arable crops grown in sample
Size (ha)	H&I⁽¹⁾	C&O⁽¹⁾	Moray Firth	Abdn⁽¹⁾	Angus	East Fife	Lothian	C. Low-lands⁽¹⁾	Tweed Valley	S. Uplands ⁽¹⁾	Solway	Scotland
0.1-19.99	19	30	22	55	21	0	6	16	6	0	8	182
20-49.9	25	20	137	428	221	32	43	128	59	31	102	1,227
50-99.9	95	120	732	1,301	1,040	658	370	478	237	65	119	5,216
100-149.9	0	248	959	983	1,803	452	624	901	833	142	114	7,060
150+	188	178	3,227	3,243	6,743	1,927	2,680	1,069	5,515	617	227	25,614
All sizes	328	596	5,077	6,012	9,828	3,069	3,723	2,593	6,649	855	570	39,298

(1) H&I = Highlands & Islands, C&O = Caithness & Orkney, Abdn = Aberdeen, C. Lowlands = Central Lowlands, S. Uplands = Southern Uplands

Table 31 Census area - 2020, Area (ha) of arable crops grown in Scotland
Size (ha)	H&I⁽¹⁾	C&O⁽¹⁾	Moray Firth	Abdn⁽¹⁾	Angus	East Fife	Lothian	C. Low- lands ⁽¹⁾	Tweed Valley	S. Uplands⁽¹⁾	Solway	Scotland
0.1-19.99	1,569	3,434	2,817	7,350	2,564	928	1,065	4,644	1,191	645	2,819	29,026
20-49.9	1,390	2,076	7,697	18,011	10,177	3,414	2,526	9,781	2,946	1,358	5,208	64,584
50-99.9	1,508	2,146	11,361	30,167	20,459	8,972	7,363	12,655	7,740	1,274	3,717	107,362
100-149.9	*	1,099	10,435	18,566	18,183	8,986	7,652	8,445	10,246	1,487	1,471	87,061
150+	*	1,239	20,677	41,362	51,407	18,075	21,381	15,030	35,403	1,773	1,878	208,597
All sizes	5,329	9,994	52,987	115,456	102,790	40,376	39,987	50,556	57,526	6,537	15,092	496,631

* To prevent disclosure of information about individual holdings, entries relating to fewer than five holdings are not reported.

(1) H&I = Highlands & Islands, C&O = Caithness & Orkney, Abdn = Aberdeen, C. Lowlands = Central Lowlands, S. Uplands = Southern Uplands

Table 32 Raising factors - 2020
Size (ha)	H&I⁽¹⁾	C&O⁽¹⁾	Moray Firth	Abdn⁽¹⁾	Angus	East Fife	Lothian	C. Low-lands⁽¹⁾	Tweed Valley	S. Uplands⁽¹⁾	Solway
0.1-19.99	83.0032	115.9885	130.8913	132.8928	120.7340	N/A	180.7589	283.8625	214.9729	N/A	352.3250
20-49.9	54.9597	103.5863	56.2180	42.0898	46.0612	107.2708	58.4746	76.4361	49.5731	44.0104	50.9972
50-99.9	15.8468	17.8171	15.5282	23.1788	19.6786	13.6360	19.9001	26.4691	32.6872	19.4728	31.1540
100-149.9	N/A	4.4306	10.8756	18.8790	10.0828	19.8835	12.2638	9.3700	12.3056	10.4983	12.9232
150+	1.9724	6.9776	6.4068	12.7529	7.6237	9.3792	7.9795	14.0601	6.4196	2.8756	8.2799

(1) H&I = Highlands & Islands, C&O = Caithness & Orkney, Abdn = Aberdeen, C. Lowlands = Central Lowlands, S. Uplands = Southern Uplands

N/A = not applicable

Table 33 First and second adjustment factors - 2020
	H&I⁽¹⁾	C&O⁽¹⁾	Moray Firth	Abdn⁽¹⁾	Angus	East Fife	Lothian	C. Low- lands⁽¹⁾	Tweed Valley	S. Uplands⁽¹⁾	Solway	ADJ2
Winter barley	N/A	N/A	1.1937	1.5248	0.9623	0.9047	1.1526	0.6188	0.9542	1.1023	1.0160	1.0081
Spring barley	1.0404	1.3217	0.9624	0.8992	0.9478	1.1851	0.7872	1.0380	0.8931	0.9824	0.7051	1.0000
Total wheat	N/A	0.1440	0.6983	1.3786	1.1610	0.8136	1.2076	0.9745	1.0009	1.4303	2.3832	1.0006
Winter oats	N/A	N/A	N/A	0.7299	0.8478	1.3921	N/A	N/A	1.0562	1.5582	N/A	1.2009
Spring oats	0.8459	0.5432	1.9862	1.4886	0.6904	0.9418	0.4765	0.6860	1.1885	N/A	N/A	1.0300
Winter rye	N/A	N/A	N/A	0.3804	N/A	0.9792	N/A	N/A	0.8585	N/A	N/A	2.4224
Spring oilseed rape	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	0.4656	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	3.0972
Winter oilseed rape	N/A	N/A	1.0953	1.3765	0.8918	1.0475	1.6737	1.6513	1.1419	0.3601	0.4426	1.0001
Seed potatoes	1.7314	N/A	1.7430	0.8905	1.2223	7.4342	N/A	2.1069	0.8640	0.4992	N/A	1.0148
Ware potatoes	1.5216	N/A	1.0713	0.9215	1.0518	1.6986	1.2667	10.4816	1.8680	N/A	10.4918	1.0021
Dry harvest peas	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	0.0887	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	10.9364
Field beans	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	0.7366	3.5074	0.7912	0.7688	0.9502	N/A	N/A	1.1395

(1) H&I = Highlands & Islands, C&O = Caithness & Orkney, Abdn = Aberdeen, C. Lowlands = Central Lowlands, S. Uplands = Southern Uplands

N/A = not applicable

Response rates

The table below summarises the number of holdings contacted during the survey

Table 34 Response rate
	2020	% total
Target sample	350	100
Total achieved	312	89
Total number of refusals/non-contact	162
Total number of farms approached	474

Financial burden to farmers

In order to minimise the burden on farmers and to comply with the restrictions imposed by COVID-19, the survey team used non-visit methods of collection such as email, post or telephone call.

To determine the total burden that the 2020 arable crop survey placed on those providing the information, the surveyors recorded the time that 287 respondents spent providing the data during the surveys. This sample represents 92 per cent of growers surveyed. The median time taken to provide the information was 20 minutes.

The following formula was used to estimate the total cost of participating:

Burden (£) = No. surveyed x median time taken (hours) x typical hourly rate*

(* using median “Full Time Gross” hourly pay for Scotland of £15.62)⁽¹²⁾

The total financial burden to all growers resulting from participation in the 2020 arable crop survey was calculated to be £1,624.

Contact

Email: psu@sasa.gov.scot

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