Influence of pesticide use on gross domestic product in Santa Maria de Jetibá-ES

The increased use of pesticides due to the expansion of agricultural production and the lack of more comprehensive and rigorous legislation and enforcement has made Brazil a major consumer of pesticides, assuming in 2009 the position of largest consumer market of pesticides in the world. The state of Espirito Santo has a relevant influence on this prominence of the country, placing itself among the ten Brazilian states that have the largest sales in the country of this class of pesticides, being Santa Maria de Jetibá an important trader and consumer of pesticides due to its intense agricultural production. Given this intense commercialization of pesticides, and the problems caused by pesticides to environmental and human health, the objective was to make a situational diagnosis of the commercialization and use of pesticides in the municipality of Santa Maria de Jetibá-ES. For this, data from existing public studies and interviews with farmers from the municipality of Santa Maria de Jetibá were used, analyzing the influence on the Gross Domestic Product of the municipality. In the city of Santa Maria de Jetibá, there was intense agricultural production and intense use of pesticides, and the percentage share of GDP was much higher than those of neighboring cities that do not practice intensive agriculture.