Development of Environmental Modules for Evaluation of Toxicity of pesticide Residues in Agriculture
Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources QLK5-CT-2002-00691

DEMETRA is an EU-funded project. This project aim has been to develop predictive models and software which give a quantitative prediction of the toxicity of a molecule, in particular molecules of pesticides, candidate pesticides, and their derivatives. The input is the chemical structure of the compound, and the software algorithms use “Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationships” (QSARs).

The DEMETRA models have been developed starting from very high quality data, using advanced computerised modelling techniques and validated with a range of methods.
Several linear and non-linear mathematical techniques (PLS, neural networks, fuzzy logic, machine learning) have been applied, both to classify chemicals and to predict toxicity as continuous values. The output of the model gives a predicted value with an uncertainty of a factor of four.