Unraveling the Use of Pesticides in the Northwest and Southwest Mesoregions of Rio Grande Do Sul: A Compre-Hensive Analysis of Market Characteristics and Dynamics

Pesticides have the function of protecting agricultural crops through phytosanitary treatments, helping increase productivity to feed an ever-growing population. They exist in a globally competitive market, where pesticide companies, resellers, and agricultural cooperatives are responsible for the sales and distribution to the final consumer, in this case the farmer. In this context, this research aims to characterize the agricultural pesticide sector and the agricultural marketing system in the Northwest and Southwest Mesoregions of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. This research consisted of a bibliographic research followed by a field survey of 40 companies, including owners and pesticides resale managers (32) and agricultural cooperatives (8). The results show a marketing system aimed at Rio Grande do Sul conducted mainly through the sale of supplier companies to resellers and agricultural cooperatives, which resell them to the farmer. The tendency of the agricultural pesticides market is to stabilize, even with the decline of the sector in Brazil in successive years, with a current resumption of growth, much of it driven by national and multinational supplier companies that invest in countries like Brazil.