Welcome to the Department of Pesticide Regulation

Pesticide Use Reporting (PUR)

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California’s pesticide use reporting program is recognized as the most comprehensive in the world. In 1990, California became the first state to require full reporting of agricultural pesticide use in response to demands for more realistic and comprehensive pesticide use data. Under the program, all agricultural pesticide use must be reported monthly to county agricultural commissioners, who in turn, report the data to DPR.

California has a broad legal definition of "agricultural use" so the reporting requirements include pesticide applications to parks, golf courses, cemeteries, rangeland, pastures, and along roadside and railroad rights-of-way. In addition, all postharvest pesticide treatments of agricultural commodities must be reported along with all pesticide treatments in poultry and fish production as well as some livestock applications. The primary exceptions to the reporting requirements are home-and-garden use and most industrial and institutional uses.

California Pesticide Information Portal (CalPIP)

Pesticide Use Annual Summaries

DPR staff prepare annual data summaries, indexed by chemical or by commodity. The summaries include analyses of pesticide use trends and are available from 1989 to present (Note in 1989, full use reporting requirements were not in effect.).


Pesticide Use Database

Download complete PUR database, by year, from DPR’s FTP site. Zip files of data from 1974 through most recent available.

  • Download zip files of full years of pesticide use data
    • Guide to using PUR files, 2002 and later (PDF, 177 kb)
  • Note: CDs of the data are also available. E-mail your request to cdprweb@cdpr.ca.gov. Please specify the year or years you want and include a mailing address. There is no charge.

Laws and Regulations

Related Links

  • Analyses of Pesticide Use Trends
  • Forms for pesticide use reporting
  • Pesticide Use Reporting: An Overview of California’s Unique Full Reporting System (May 2000) (HTML) (PDF, 171 kb)
  • Report on pesticide use report data quality (2001)
    • Appendix A (PDF, 107 kb) – Preliminary and Expanded List of PUR Problems and Issues
    • Appendix B (PDF, 32 kb) – Pesticide User Report Improvement Plan
    • Appendix C (PDF, 2.99 mb) – An Assessment of Spatial Data Quality
    • Appendix D (PDF, 564 kb) – Pesticide Use Report Loading and Error-Handling


For content questions contact:

Basil Ibewiro
1001 I Street, PO Box 4015
Sacramento, California 95814-4015
Phone: (916) 322-2152
E-mail: bibewiro@cdpr.ca.gov