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Article: France to allow neonic STs to tackle sugar beet yellowing
19 August 2020
The French Ministry of Agriculture has come up with an action
plan, including allowing the use of neonicotinoid insecticide seed
treatments, to tackle the "unprecedented crisis" of yellowing virus
damage to the country's sugar beet crops. The yellowing is caused
by one or more of: beet yellows virus; beet mild yellowing virus;
and beet chlorosis virus. The viruses are transmitted by
aphids.
The Ministry points out that for two years, French sugar beet
growers have not used crop protection products containing
neonicotinoids, unlike their European competitors who have recourse
to the exemptions provided for by EU law. The 2020 planting season
has shown that the technical alternatives available have proved
ineffective for the cultivation of sugar beet, in particular in the
weather conditions at the beginning of 2020, it adds.
The Ministry has proposed a legislative modification this autumn
to allow the use of neonicotinoid seed treatments for the 2021
season and, if necessary the two following crop seasons at most.
That would be under Article 53 of the EU agrochemical registration
Regulation (1107/2009), "as is done by other EU countries facing
the same difficulties, in order to be able to take an exemption of
120 days for coated seeds at the time of sowing, under strictly
supervised conditions". The Ministry points out that EU regulation
authorises such exemptions on the condition "that such a measure is
necessary because of a danger which cannot be controlled by other
reasonable means".
Beets do not produce flowers before the harvest period, which
limits the impact of these insecticides on pollinating insects, the
Ministry says. Nevertheless, strict conditions of use will be
associated for the examination of any request for these exemptions.
They include: only use by coating the seeds can be considered, and
that spraying will remain prohibited, in order to limit the risks
of dispersion of the product; a ban on the planting of crops
attractive to pollinator, following those of sugar beets, so as not
to expose pollinating insects to possible product residues; and the
creation, by the end of 2020, of a plan for the protection of
pollinators, aimed at strengthening their protection during
flowering periods, and better taking into account the issues
associated with pollinators when crop protection products are
placed on the market.
The action plan also includes a reinforced and substantial
research effort to accelerate the identification of "truly
effective" alternatives, through private research institutes such
as the ITB (Technical Institute for Beetroot ) as well as public
research institutes such the national research institute for
agriculture, food and the environment, the INRAE. An additional €5
million ($5.8 million) will be available from 2021 as part of the
recovery plan. There will be an examination of the yield losses for
the 2020 season and compensation in the event of significant losses
linked to this beet yellows crisis under the EU's "de
minimis" aid scheme.
The yellowing virus has developed massively in all French sugar
beet producing regions and will have a very strong impact on
production, the Ministry says. The disease can cause yield losses
of 30-50%. The Ministry is worried that the crisis will create the
risk of a massive abandoning of sugar beet in 2021 by farmers in
favour of other crops. "If sowing is done from March, the choice of
crops for the following year is decided in the coming weeks. There
is therefore an urgent need to act," the Ministry stresses.
France banned five neonicotinoid insecticides, acetamiprid,
clothianidin, imidacloprid, thiacloprid and thiamethoxam, in
September 2018. That was days before the EU's ban on outdoor uses
of clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam, which came into
effect on September 19th 2018. Some member states have been giving
emergency approvals for neonicotinoid use since then. But a
European Food Safety Authority study found that some of the emergency
neonicotinoid authorisations granted by seven member states were
not justified. Earlier this year, the European Commission went
ahead with measures to stop Lithuania and Romania from granting
emergency approvals for certain uses of neonicotinoid
insecticides.