Farmers praised this decision, but beekeepers regretted the absence of taking into account the temperature and the possibility of treating crops at the moment when the bees still fooled.
Le Monde with AFP
The government’s decision was expected after the temporary reintroduction of neonicotinoid insecticides, extremely harmful to bees, for beet cultivation. In the event of a spreading, the challenge was to minimize the risks by targeting the conditions where the bees do not follow anymore: hours in the day but also outside temperature.
The Ministry of Agriculture has decided by defining the first but not the second: from 1 er January 2022, plant protection products may be used, in a flowering period, two hours before The sunset and up to three hours after whatever the outside temperature, according to A decree appeared on Sunday in the Official Journal hailed by farmers but denounced by beekeepers. The flowering period refers to the period from the opening of the first flowers to the fall of the petals of the last flowers, specifies the text.
The publication intervenes in the aftermath of the presentation by the broad lines of the pollinators, promised in 2020 after the temporary reintroduction of neonicotinoid insecticides for the cultivation of beet. It aims to combat the collapse of pollinating insect populations, including bees, essential to biodiversity as well as agricultural production, but vulnerable to pesticides.
“In July, it is 25 degrees and the Bees Buttinent “
The decree does not satisfy beekeepers, which denounce the possibility of treating crops at times when bees fooled. “Two hours before sunset, without any other criterion, for us, it is not acceptable,” said Eric Lelong, president of the interprofession of beekeepers (INTERAPI). The organization wanted to be taken into account the temperature criterion. Thus, in July, two hours before the sunset, “it is 25 degrees” and “the bees are still butinner”.
Conversely, the largest organization of French farmers, the FNSEA, and the young farmers welcome, in the name of the fight against the night work of the farmers, “the opening allowing to derogate from the Obligation to treat attractive crops only after sunset, with the addition of a beach of two hours before sunset “.
According to the decree, this time of application of phytosanitary products (which belong to the pesticide family) can be modified in case of “exclusively diurnal” activity of “bioagressers” (living organisms that attack crops), to ensure “effective protection of treated culture”. Another exception: if a disease imposes an urgent use of a “fungicidal treatment”, within an “incompatible with the expected period” in the decree.
The FNSEA and the young farmers denounce, nevertheless, an “overhang of the Community rules” which “puts French farmers in a situation of distortion of competition for the protection of their cultures”, as well as “insufficient financial means for Implement the ambitious goals of the pollinator plan “.
In particular, this plan provides in particular to assess the risk of all pesticides, including herbicides and fungicides, for pollinators for a possible restriction, or even prohibition of treatment on attractive flowering crops, now applicable only. to insecticides.