Agribusiness and the demand for pesticides in Paraná

panorama of utilization in the state and in the Southwestern Mesoregion

Abstract

The general objective of this article is to present an overview of the use of pesticides in Paraná, and the Southwestern Mesoregion of the state, discussing the problems and consequences of the exacerbated use of these products for the environment and human health.For that, the methodological procedures are anchored in the analysis of secondary official data about the commercializationof active ingredients, the resident population, the agrarian structure,and the productive specialization.The results show that, although Paraná has a predominance of family farming in terms of farmers, there is a concentration of land by agribusiness, so that productive specialization is a striking feature, whether in medium and large rural establishments,as well in family farming establishments. The production of agricultural commodities, mainly soybeans, corn,and wheat, is extremely dependent on the use of active ingredients such as the herbicides Glyphosate and 2,4-D, associated with the development of various damages to human and environmental health.In the Southwestern Mesoregion, this reality is no different, which suggests that the population issubject to a high environmental and occupational exposure, triggering environmental injustices, especially for rural workers, due to the growing use of pesticides by agribusiness, that is, by the oligarchic agrochemical complex, with broad support from the Brazilian government.