Beets sick : the government wants to allow use of an insecticide banned

Beet planters have been warning for several weeks about the situation in the sugar industry, which, according to them, is scarce due to green aphids. Government

Beet planters have been warning for several weeks about the situation in the sugar industry, which, according to them, is scarce due to green aphids.

The government wants to allow sugar beet growers to use, “under strictly controlled conditions”, an insecticide banned from 2018 to protect their crops from green aphids, the vector of yellows virus.

The government plans to “amend the law this autumn”, introducing a maximum deviation until 2023, as part of the support plan for the sector, the Ministry of Agriculture announced in a press release on Thursday.

Beet growers have been warning for several weeks about the situation in the sugar industry, which, they say, is in short supply due to green aphids, almost without fail, the vector of the yield-destroying yellows virus.

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The trade union specialist CGB), linked to the FNSEA, warned that France would not produce “600,000 to 800,000 tonnes of sugar” this year because of the lack of a solution to the jaundice virus. The harvest is planned for this fall. With the support of local and national officials, the union requested an exemption to use neonicotinoids to protect the seeds. These insecticides, which attack the nervous system of insects and thus pollinators such as bees, were banned from multipurpose crops in September 2018.

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“Emergency Act”

The department explains that the question of “legal changes” must “expressly allow for the 2021 campaign and, if applicable, a maximum of two subsequent campaigns”, a derogation from the ban on seed coating with an insecticide product, “under strictly controlled conditions” and “like other European countries they face the same difficulties”.

“The European regulation allows, provided that such action is necessary due to a danger that cannot be contained by other reasonable means,” it said. There was an “urgency to act”, according to the ministry. “This jaundice crisis weakens the sugar sector as a whole and creates the risk of farmers abandoning beet in 2021 in favor of other crops. But France is the first sugar producer in Europe. The sector refers to 46,000 jobs, of which 25,000 farmers and 21 candies .”

The Ministry of Agriculture states that this measure is part of a more global “action plan”, which aims to “secure plantations, the supply of sweets and therefore maintain a strong and competitive sugar industry in France, while at the same time limiting the impact on pollinators”.

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It also aims to mobilize “from 2021 as part of the recovery plan” an additional five million euros to finance research into “really effective alternatives” to neonicotinoids, but also to compensate farmers who saved “big” losses in 2020 due to this beet yellow crisis”.

Date of update: August 6, 2020, 10:58 am

Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: newstars.edu.vn

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