Short answers, pulled from the story.
Herbicides account for approximately 50 percent of all pesticide use globally, making them the single largest category of pesticides by volume. They are used to control weeds in agriculture, clear roadsides, and manage aquatic plants in ponds and lakes.
DDT was banned in the 1970s in several countries and subsequently prohibited worldwide for agricultural use because of its persistence in the environment and toxicity to humans. It is a stable, fat-soluble compound that bioaccumulates in the food chain; by 1972, nineteen mosquito species worldwide had developed resistance to it. Spraying DDT on interior walls for malaria vector control remains a permitted exception under World Health Organization guidance.
Total agricultural pesticide use doubled from 1990 to 2023. In 2023, 3.73 million tonnes of active ingredients were applied worldwide, a figure that also represents a 14 percent increase over the preceding decade.
The World Health Organization and UN Environment Programme estimate that 3 million agricultural workers in the developing world suffer severe pesticide poisoning each year, resulting in 18,000 deaths. An additional 25 million workers may experience milder poisoning annually, and 50 to 80 percent of cases go unreported.
The cost of developing a pesticide in 2024 was estimated at 301 million US dollars. The registration process alone can take several years and costs 50 to 70 million dollars for a single compound, involving 70 types of field tests.
Integrated pest management, or IPM, is an approach that uses multiple methods to control pests and applies pesticides only when an economic or biological threshold of crop damage is reached. It was introduced in the 1950s and became the official policy of international organizations, industry, and many governments by the 2020s. Countries including Indonesia, China, Bangladesh, the United States, Australia, and Mexico have used it successfully.