Publication - Statistics

Pesticide Usage in Scotland: Arable crops and Potato stores 2022

Published: 13 December 2023
From: Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands
Directorate: Agriculture and Rural Economy Directorate
Topic: Farming and rural
ISBN: 9781835217191

This publication presents information from a survey of pesticide use on Arable crops and Potato stores in Scotland during 2022.

Supporting documents

Appendix 2 – Survey statistics

Census and sample information

Table 24 Regional distribution of arable crops in 2022
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. Up-lands⁽¹⁾	Solway	Scotland 2022	Scotland 2020	% change
Winter barley	129	186	1,725	12,351	7,039	3,318	3,826	5,135	6,208	1,060	3,197	44,174	43,091	3
Spring barley	4,262	7,461	37,020	73,766	41,723	11,799	10,956	25,765	12,844	3,432	6,789	235,816	258,702	-9
Wheat	84	*	4,680	10,911	24,653	13,789	16,741	9,843	21,678	1,142	3,496	107,117	93,538	15
Winter oats	*	*	*	867	1,095	1,988	296	678	2,785	399	143	8,436	7,984	6
Spring oats	348	1,935	1,355	3,253	2,861	2,343	1,361	2,541	2,204	153	360	18,713	26,000	-28
Winter rye	*	0	1,433	703	1,953	820	191	439	1,072	0	559	7,174	5,137	40
Triticale	*	0	*	141	*	*	0	106	0	0	*	347	448	-23
Winter oilseed rape	0	0	2,664	8,781	8,192	1,708	4,185	1,772	7,323	172	348	35,145	30,373	16
Spring oilseed rape⁽²⁾	0	0	*	*	*	78	41	*	0	0	*	286	537	-47
Seed potatoes	230	30	1,823	2,382	5,258	393	72	1,170	465	*	29	11,894	12,003	-1
Ware potatoes	84	30	755	492	7,142	2,360	1,461	1,263	1,454	*	207	15,248	16,294	-6
Field beans	*	*	77	50	380	662	402	308	576	*	132	2,616	2,138	22
Dry harvest peas	0	21	63	102	*	69	*	30	68	0	0	410	328	25
Lupins	0	0	*	0	*	0	0	*	0	0	0	13	17	-22
Mixed grain	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	41	-100
Totals	5,161	9,797	51,810	113,835	100,360	39,327	39,567	49,119	56,678	6,416	15,319	487,389	496,631	-2

* 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 Low-lands, S. Up-lands = Southern Uplands.

(2) Includes linseed.

Note: areas grown for 2020 are taken from the 2020 June Agricultural Census. As there was no Census in 2022, the areas grown in 2022 are taken from the SAF data. Please see Appendix 4 for further information.

Table 25 Distribution of arable sample - 2022
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. Up-lands ⁽¹⁾	Solway	Scotland
0.1-19.99	2	3	2	3	1	1	1	3	1	1	3	21
20-49.9	1	2	6	12	7	2	2	7	4	0	4	47
50-99.9	2	3	7	18	18	7	7	10	5	1	2	80
100-149.9	0	1	6	14	12	7	6	6	12	1	1	66
150+	0	0	13	23	25	11	19	6	18	1	2	118
All sizes	5	9	34	70	63	28	35	32	40	4	12	332

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

Table 26 Sample area - 2022
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. Up-lands ⁽¹⁾	Solway	Scotland
0.1-19.99	18	25	22	33	11	42	8	21	10	17	22	228
20-49.9	28	59	186	397	216	51	68	251	160	0	81	1,494
50-99.9	114	186	521	1,324	1,214	413	442	657	317	98	117	5,401
100-149.9	0	130	786	1,741	1,414	800	765	726	1,546	143	105	8,154
150+	0	0	2,741	4,768	5,546	2,505	3,957	1,217	4,607	355	357	26,052
All sizes	159	399	4,255	8,262	8,400	3,811	5,240	2,871	6,639	613	681	41,329

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

Table 27 SAF area - 2022
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	1,399	3103	2,479	6,355	1,836	555	653	3,944	825	667	2,760	24,578
20-49.9	1,577	2222	7,117	16,448	9,369	3,464	2,454	9,324	2,897	1,011	4,913	60,797
50-99.9	1,427	1968	11,556	28,445	19,599	8,532	6,287	12,724	7,262	1,339	3,932	103,071
100-149.9	585	1078	9,130	19,601	16,517	8,459	7,362	7,962	10,136	1,632	1,414	83,875
150+	*	1424	21,529	42,985	53,039	18,317	22,810	15,165	35,558	1,767	2,300	215,067
All sizes	5,161	9,797	51,810	113,835	100,360	39,327	39,567	49,119	56,678	6,416	15,319	487,389

* 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. Low-lands = Central Lowlands, S. Uplands = Southern Uplands.

Table 28 Raising factors - 2022
Size (ha)	H&I & 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	104.9620	113.5201	195.2452	169.5319	13.2245	78.3393	191.8259	85.1889	38.5078	126.2589
20-49.9	44.1543	38.3634	41.4693	43.4434	67.7869	36.2273	37.1663	18.1029	[z]	60.8301
50-99.9	11.3467	22.1773	21.4809	16.1467	20.6696	14.2188	19.3750	22.9427	13.6673	33.7484
100-149.9	12.8064	11.6218	11.2611	11.6825	10.5710	9.6257	10.9746	6.5580	11.3953	13.4797
150+	[z]	7.8554	9.0148	9.5635	7.3123	5.7649	12.4582	7.7187	4.9847	6.4438

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

Note: some shorthand is used in this table: [z] = not applicable.

Table 29 First and second adjustment factors - 2022
	H&I & C&O⁽¹⁾	Moray Firth	Abdn⁽¹⁾	Angus	East Fife	Lothian	C. Low- lands⁽¹⁾	Tweed Valley	S. Uplands⁽¹⁾	Solway	ADJ2
Winter barley	0.9721	1.6197	0.9821	0.8645	0.6334	0.8147	0.8816	1.2325	1.1086	0.7284	1.0000
Spring barley	1.1154	0.9093	0.9936	0.9890	1.0158	1.0889	1.0239	0.8432	2.8907	0.8957	1.0000
Total wheat	[z]	0.9051	0.9982	1.0521	0.9859	0.9715	1.1016	1.0842	0.4768	3.2893	1.0017
Winter oats	[z]	[z]	0.6566	1.8637	1.1293	1.2734	0.5812	0.7560	0.8700	[z]	1.0404
Spring oats	1.0280	0.6233	1.0941	1.1702	1.4439	0.9407	0.7057	0.8800	[z]	0.2635	1.0082
Winter rye	[z]	[z]	1.1376	0.4707	1.4379	[z]	[z]	0.5736	[z]	1.8655	1.4049
Triticale	[z]	[z]	0.1452	0.1046	[z]	[z]	0.2481	[z]	[z]	[z]	1.3233
Spring oilseed rape	[z]	[z]	[z]	[z]	0.3231	[z]	[z]	[z]	[z]	0.1702	3.5580
Winter oilseed rape	[z]	1.6606	1.0714	1.0559	1.2208	1.4192	0.8065	1.0900	0.4436	[z]	1.0100
Linseed	[z]	[z]	[z]	[z]	[z]	0.1769	[z]	[z]	[z]	[z]	27.1176
Seed potatoes	1.4472	2.5834	2.5774	0.7922	1.5202	[z]	2.7889	4.1568	2.2379	0.1042	1.0060
Ware potatoes	0.8982	3.9845	1.4291	1.5996	1.3284	0.6824	2.0464	1.5338	[z]	[z]	1.0137
Dry harvest peas	[z]	0.7144	0.1368	[z]	[z]	0.5189	[z]	[z]	[z]	[z]	2.0582
Field beans	[z]	0.7500	[z]	0.9219	0.6610	0.5540	0.4000	0.9987	[z]	0.7578	1.0309

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

Note: some shorthand is used in this table: [z] = not applicable.

Response rates

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

Table 30 Response rate
	2022	Percentage total
Target sample	350	100
Total achieved	332	95
Total number of refusals/non-contact	174
Total number of farms approached	506

Financial burden to farmers

In order to minimise the burden on farmers the survey team used non-visit methods of collection such as email, post or telephone call, where possible.

To determine the total burden that the 2022 arable crop survey placed on those providing the information, the surveyors recorded the time that 310 respondents spent providing the data during the survey. This sample represents 93 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 £16.69)⁽¹⁵⁾

The total financial burden to all growers resulting from participation in the 2022 arable crop survey was calculated to be £1,847.

Contact

Email: psu@sasa.gov.scot

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Information

Appendix 2 – Survey statistics

Census and sample information

Response rates

Financial burden to farmers

Contact

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