The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association has said that it is “alarmed” at a report issued in Brussels by the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) on the Regulation on the Sustainable Use of Pesticides (SUR).
New pesticide regulations, which were adopted by the European Commission earlier this month, will see the residue limits left in food by these substances restricted.
When they come into force, the regulations will lower the permissible maximum residue levels (MRLs) of the pesticides clothianidin and thiamethoxam, which belong to the neonicotinoid group of insecticides.
The MRL for these substances will be reduced to the lowest level that can be detected by pesticide measuring technologies, with this requirement applying to all products produced in the EU, as well as imported food and feed products.
ICSA Tillage Committee chair, Gavin Carberry said a “report by rapporteur Sarah Wiener MEP indicates that the European Parliament is prepared to go even further than the European Commission proposals by favouring an 80% reduction in pesticide use – instead of the 50% reduction proposed by the commission.
“This is a completely over the top move particularly in advance of viable plant protection alternatives becoming available; it must be resisted at every level.”
Assessment of proposal for pesticides
Carberry said he is calling for an urgent assessment of the impact that furthering these proposals will have on crop yields and food security.
“It is a certainty that there will be serious implications for the availability of food and feed. Productivity will be massively hit with a 50% reduction and the situation would be even more dire with an 80% reduction,” he said.
“It is reckless in the extreme to bring in measures that will decimate production right across the EU and that will deny its citizens of vital commodities without first ensuring the availability of alternative products that work and can be purchased at a reasonable cost.”
“I have personally experienced a 25% drop in yield of a sugar beet crop due to the recent non-availability of the plant protection product Rogor, an insecticide.
“This left the crop susceptible to disease, which then occurred, and which then resulted in my having to spray the crop twice with a fungicide. This shows the lack of joined-up thinking when the result is using twice as much of one product when another, more appropriate product, was taken off the market – plus my yield was 25% down.”
The ICSA has said that the EU moves could result in a food security crisis and that the government has to act to allow tillage farmers here protect their crops.
A public consultation on the EU Commissions Proposal for a Sustainable Use of Pesticides Regulation is currently underway. Submissions can be made to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine until February 24, 2023.