Dusseldorf The use of pesticides in the EU is to be reduced by half in the next few years – this is what the plans in the Green Deal of the EU Commission envisage. But farmers and manufacturers are now increasingly taking action against the massive reduction. They fear for the crop yields and warn of bottlenecks in the food supply due to the already tense situation on the agricultural markets since the Ukraine war.
“We farmers, regardless of whether we farm organically or conventionally, need pesticides to be able to secure the yields and quality of our harvests,” said Joachim Rukwied, President of the German Farmers’ Association, the Handelsblatt. “If the EU Commission’s proposals to limit the use of pesticides are actually implemented, we would slide straight into a supply crisis that would affect the whole of Europe.”
In the Green Deal and the Farm-to-Fork strategy it contains, the EU Commission has set out clear guidelines for agriculture in the member states. The EU wants to ensure sustainable agriculture and healthier food and improve climate protection.
According to this, the amount of pesticides applied is to be halved by 2030. In 2020, 346,000 tonnes were sprayed in the EU. In addition, the farmers should use a fifth less fertilizer. A quarter of the agricultural land in Europe should only be farmed organically.
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Above all, the farmers are opposed to the planned halving of the quantities of weed killers and agents against insect and fungal infestation. The agricultural industry is also critical of this. According to the Agricultural Industry Association (IVA), the EU’s farm-to-fork strategy is generally welcomed. However, halving the amount of pesticides can only be achieved with significant yield losses in agriculture.
Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent
The Commission’s scientific service, the Joint Research Center, considers the EU program to be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture by 20 percent. However, this is also accompanied by a decline in production, according to the report.
A forecast decline in the supply of grain and oilseeds by 15 percent and for vegetables by 12 percent are “in view of the current challenges, enormous amounts”, warns the IVA. The agricultural industry is thus alluding to possible supply bottlenecks, which are feared due to increasing drought and the effects of the Ukraine war.
The head of the agricultural association fears a shortage of fertilizers.
(Photo: dpa)
Farmers see crops in jeopardy because of a variety of growing problems. According to Farmer President Rukwied, yields will already fall this year due to the persistent drought. In addition: “It is crucial for a stable food supply that we farmers have sufficient nitrogen fertilizer available. If this were missing, the crop yields would collapse significantly.”
Nitrogen fertilizer is made from the raw material natural gas. Its price has recently risen significantly again. In winter there is also a risk of a shortage of gas due to a lack of Russian supplies. The fertilizer manufacturers see the situation on the market as tense, but are not yet assuming any serious bottlenecks. According to the IVA, the reduced domestic production can still be compensated for by higher imports from outside the EU.
The warnings of food shortages are also addressed to Federal Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens). He had already reacted at the weekend in view of the tense international agricultural markets as a result of the Ukraine war: The minister wants to enable farmers to use agricultural land for the cultivation of certain crops for food production for longer.
The additional species protection areas actually planned are not to be introduced until 2024. Farmers could then continue to grow food on these areas in the coming year. This caused mixed reactions: environmentalists accused Özdemir of giving in to pressure from the agricultural lobby.
Environmental politicians call for protection of biodiversity
This is exactly what environmental politicians fear, even with current calls for a softening of the EU targets for reducing pesticides. The answer to the agricultural challenges cannot be to “postpone urgently needed goals to protect biodiversity, such as halving the use of pesticides,” said Martin Häusling, agricultural policy spokesman for the Greens in the European Parliament.
Häusling sees the climate crisis as a reason for the falling yields in agriculture. He says: “We must not play off the multiple crises that the world is facing against each other.”
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture supports this view: “Even against the background of the war in Ukraine, we must not neglect the management of further crises such as the climate and biodiversity crisis,” says a statement.
In the industry, there are also increasing calls to reconsider the planned complete ban on the controversial weed killer glyphosate in order to secure crop yields. However, the federal government does not want to change the planned stop on January 1, 2024 in Germany.
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture announced that this date was already anchored in the currently applicable Plant Protection Application Ordinance. There are sufficient alternatives to weed control, such as plowing or treatment with other herbicidal active ingredients.
Glyphosate remains available longer
Glyphosate is only approved in the EU until the end of this year. However, this will formally be extended for some time. This is due to the delays in the process of possible re-approval at EU level. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will only be able to present its report on glyphosate in mid-2023 – it has to work through 3,000 pages of positions on glyphosate.
The EU countries must make the decision on re-admission by a qualified majority. Glyphosate manufacturers like Bayer expect that the EU Commission will not implement this vote until 2024. It is currently expected in the industry that key countries such as France and Germany will refuse to allow glyphosate again.
Bayer says it supports the goals of the Green Deal, but would like politicians to advocate an objective, science-based and, above all, accelerated approval system – this applies to active ingredients such as glyphosate, but also to next-generation crop protection products.
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