The European Union announced in June a legally binding target to reduce the use of chemical pesticides by 50% by 2030. The goal was proposed in 2020, but little progress has been made since then in developing a specific path to achieve it.
The sustainable use of pesticides regulations, due in three months' time, will be the EU's first binding law requiring farmers to reduce their use of agricultural chemicals. However, a reality that Europe is currently facing is that the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has severely disrupted food and agricultural supply chains in the EU region, especially in Central and Eastern European countries bordering the former Soviet Union.
Ten countries, including Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, put together a list of derogations and exceptions, proposing that if any of the ten countries do not meet the requirements of the forthcoming law, The required pesticide reduction targets are not illegal in the country.
"Food security and the competitiveness of EU agricultural production have been facing many challenges, which have been further exacerbated by the Russian-Ukrainian war," the ten countries said in a joint statement. In this context, the ten countries said, "stability" and "" Proportionate measures "are essential to protect European farmers and consumers.
They added that EU member states should be allowed to change their course of action if "member states foresee that the 2030 reduction target will not be achieved due to unpredictable reasons such as new pests, emergence of invasive species or changes in agricultural structure".
Meanwhile, UK Agriculture Minister George Eustice, while backing an increase in the use of bio-fertilizers to replace chemical fertilizers, called for a slowdown in the UK's use of food crops to produce bioethanol, given the continued rise in food and feed prices.
Fertilizer plants in Eastern European countries such as Romania and Ukraine have been idle since the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in March 2022, as raw material prices have continued to rise. Ukrainian grain and seed supplies were hijacked and resold on global markets, sources said.
Under the new legislation, the EU will also consider bans on the use of pesticides in areas such as parks, playgrounds or nature reserves, which will affect the use of things like glyphosate.
But not all traditional active ingredients can be effectively replaced by biological products, and to this end, the European Commission recommends that farmers should use more bio-promoting products over the next decade or so as other products are phased out or banned. Integrated Pest Control (IPM) method used in combination with traditional active ingredients.
Source: AgroPages
