France lets farmers use more pesticides to protect sugar output

Bayer Cropscience

05/04/2024 10:39

PARIS, April 5 (Reuters) - French farmers will be
allowed to apply more pesticides on their sugar beet fields this
year due to a high risk of attacks from an insect carrying a
disease that had ravaged crops in 2020, France's deputy
agriculture minister said on Friday.
    The yellows disease led to a 26% fall in French sugar output
in 2020, prompting the government to allow sugar beet growers to
use a pesticide called neonicotinoids banned in the European
Union over risks to bees. 
    France had to drop the exemptions last year after an EU
court said these were illegal, but farmers and scientists say
alternatives as effective as the pesticide are not ready yet.
    "With a mild winter, we have a very high risk of aphids
multiplying and therefore of yellows disease on sugar beets,"
Deputy Agriculture Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher, told France
Bleu Nord radio.
    "Beet is sugar, we are not going to import more sugar
without taking care of this risk, so our objective is to give
solutions to farmers."
    Beet growers will be allowed to make up to five applications
of Spirotetramat, developed by Bayer CropScience  BAYE.NS  under
the brand Movento, from two currently, with three applications
allowed from the start and another two in case needed, she said.
    This comes in addition to ISK Bioscience's flonicamid-based
pesticide Teppeki, which has been in use for years, the farm
ministry said separately.
    The sugar beet area in France is expected to rebound
slightly this year, after a 6% drop to a 14-year low in 2023, as
farmers are encouraged by high sugar prices. 

 (Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide; Editing by Devika
Syamnath)
 ((Sybille.deLaHamaide@thomsonreuters.com; +336 8774 4148;))