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Plant Protection
Plant protection products are key vectors for advances in agriculture, but have become the “bête noire” of public opinion with one of the more symbolic decisions in the Grenelle environmental legislation being to halve the use of pesticides within the next ten years.
AGPM and the technical institute for plants, Arvalis, have always adopted a pro-active approach with a view to progress, with finer, more rational choices on the use of chemical substances. These developments are needed to respond to expectations from civil society. However, the AGPM is opposed to any decisions which could see farmers faced with a technical dilemma or in an impossible situation where competition is distorted. |
 What is the purpose of plant protection products?
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| | Plant protection treatments are as essential for plants as medical drugs are for human beings and they play the same role, i.e. treating a disease or parasite (e.g. virus, bacteria or weeds) so that the right quality and quantity can be produced.
Plant protection products can be divided into two types:
- preventive treatments to help avoid attacks by pests in an area where there is a strong possibility of finding the pest targeted.
- curative treatments which, once the disease has been diagnosed, treat both causes and symptoms.
Plant protection products for arable crops can be divided into three major categories:
- herbicides for weed control
- insecticides for insect pests attacking plants
- fungicides targeting fungal infestations. |
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Minimal treatment, conducted with due transparency |
| | Maize is one of the crops requiring the lowest levels of pesticides per hectare: it is given only small amounts of insecticide and/or fungicide; most treatments are herbicides.
Reports are logged, noting all treatments with plant protection products, detailing dates and doses, plot by plot. These documents are made available to the authorities, providing relevant information on farming practices. |
Seed Treatments : The ideal solution for pest control |
| | The technique which consists of applying a protective layer of a product to the seed protects both the maize seed and seedling from soil-borne pests and has a number of advantages:
- it is more environmentally friendly, with a highly targeted action where only the seed is in contact with the product, thus minimising any risk of spreading into ecosystems.
- for farmers, this reduces the number of crop treatments, saving working hours and avoiding risks that may be involved in handling the products.
- for farming, with advances in agricultural techniques, this ensures ongoing supplies of good quality at a reasonable price while respecting the environment.
After reports on bees dying and hives emptying, attention focused on insecticide-treated seed and in 2004 Fipronil and Gaucho were banned. The ban left maize in an untenable situation until 2008, even though many studies on bees, including observations by the French food safety agency, AFSSA, showed that these occurrences could not be attributed to the use of treated seed. In 2008, approval was given for Cruiser, providing a new solution to control soil-borne pests, but the conditions set for using the product meant that this was only a partial solution as Cruiser can only be used every third year. The bee monitoring network that was set up did not report any effect on bees in 2008 and continued monitoring in 2009. |
Diabrotica |
| | Western corn rootworm (Diabrotica virgifera) is a beetle that is a pest on maize crops. The damage is caused by the larvae that attack the roots and also by the adult beetles that feed on the maize silks. Diabrotica first found its way into Europe (in former Yugoslavia) in the mid-1990s, coming from North America, and was reported soon after in Italy. Since then, both national and European authorities have set up a surveillance system monitoring the ongoing spread of the infestation in eastern Europe. Since 2002, a decision by European authorities imposing compulsory pest control requires Member States to take action when the pest is found within national borders.
A targeted trapping network has been operating in France since 1999. The first insects were trapped in 2002 near Roissy (Paris airport) and since then new outbreaks have been reported almost every year; in 2008, diabrotica spread to Alsace, Rhone-Alps and the Greater Paris area. |
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In theory, this new pest will not endanger maize production as there are pest control methods which have been tried and tested in the United States, mainly plant protection products targeting the larvae as well as larva-resistant GM varieties.
However, access to such solutions in Europe and specifically in France is limited (with no GM varieties and only restricted access to effective plant protection products). For the moment, France has not suffered diabrotica-related damage, but the sector, working through ARVALIS plant institute, is studying the behaviour of the insect and pest control options to stem the spread of the pest and is also conducting experiments in countries which have already suffered extensive damage (Italy, Hungary).
Diabrotica has been classified as a “quarantine pest” in the European Union, i.e. it should not be found at all within the Union. This means compulsory pest control (requiring plant protection treatment and crop rotation for maize) designed to eradicate the pest, but as the insect is present in Europe and still spreading, it is unlikely that this objective will be achieved.
The AGPM and the CEPM have called for diabrotica to be removed from the list of quarantine insects and for appropriate pest control facilities to be made available (PPPs and GM varieties) so that routine pest control can be carried out for diabrotica which is quite clearly moving permanently into Europe.
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