A Scottish Government survey of pesticide use on outdoor vegetables in 2025 estimates 188,500 treatment-hectares across a planted area of 22,673 hectares. The measure sums separate or repeated pesticide applications to the same land; it does not mean 188,500 distinct hectares of fields. The cumulative total was 13% above the 166,100 treatment-hectares reported for 2023 and 26% above 2021. An estimated 93% of the planted area received at least one pesticide treatment.

The estimated weight applied was 64.9 tonnes, 7% higher than in 2023. Adjusted for crop area, the survey recorded 8.3 treated hectares and 2.9 kilograms of pesticide per hectare grown. The estimates come from a sample of 89 holdings representing 12% of crop area; relative standard errors were 6% for treated area and 7% for weight. The report cautions that this was not a census of all farms and may be affected by grower record-keeping and non-response bias.