The decree allows, under the 2022 campaign and for a period of 120 days, the use of seeds of sugar beets treated with very controversial neonicotinoids.
Le Monde
The pesticides “bees killers” come back. The use of seeds of sugar beet treated with neonicotinoids, insecticides with harmful effects for bees, is allowed for the 2022 campaign in France, according to an order published Tuesday 1 Official log .
This new derogation, after a similar measure in 2021, was very awaited by the sector in the absence of an effective replacement solution to combat jaundice, which had resulted in, in 2020, the destruction of a third of the Harvesting of sugar beet and 280 million euros of losses in the sector.
The decree authorizes, under the 2022 campaign and for a period of 120 days, the use of sugar beet seeds treated with “ImidaCloprid or Thiamethoxam Active substances, very controversial neonicotinoids. The decree is accompanied by restrictions on crops that can be implemented in subsequent years, in order to reduce the exposure of pollinating insects to potential residues of these products.
To do without neonicotinoids from the season. 2024
At the end of 2020, Parliament had authorized the temporary return of these insecticides “bees” forbidden since 2018, to steal the help of the Bettlevière sector. She had just cope with the proliferation of green aphids, vectors of jaundice disease that weakens the plant and reduces yields. The law stated that the derogations could not be granted until July 2023, only for sugar beet seeds.
The Government launched, in 2020, “a National Plan of Research and Innovation [PNRI]” of seven million euros, “aiming to prepare the final exit of neonicotinoids from the season 2024, thanks to The identification and deployment of alternatives to seeds coated for sugar beet planters “, recalls the Ministry of Agriculture in a statement.
These replacement solutions are being experimenting “in the 500 hectares of pilot farms provided for in the research program, from 2022, 250 hectares of demonstration farms, managed by interprofessional to test Solutions in real condition in the field “.
“This will permit the definitively neonicotinoids at the latest from the 2024 season in the conduct of the Betteraviera cultures,” said the government, suggesting that a new waiver could be granted for the 2023 campaign. Absence of convincing results by then.