On the basis of standard protection programs defined by crop protection experts, a fixed pesticide use in tensity is estimated for 19 annual and perennial crops representing 90% of French arable land area and the bulk of pesticide use in French agriculture. These coefficients, combined with national agricultural land use statistics, are used to construct an artificial index of pesticide use in France whose variations depend solely on changes in agricultural land use. This index is calculated over the period 1989–2013