Leading European agricultural experts gathered in Ljubljana
(Slovenia) on 22 April 2008 in order to present the Slovenian EU
presidency with a declaration on potential risks of the proposed EU
legislation. The scientists from seven countries fear that reducing
the available range of pesticides could lower their efficiency as it
is likely that it will increase resistance.
The scientist´s concern is triggered by proposals announced by EU
institutions to reform legislation on plant protection products. The
European Parliament voted in favour of new legislation which would
drastically reduce the number of authorised pesticides, in the coming
years. In the "Declaration of Ljubljana", participating scientists
express their fear that such a move would endanger the sustainability
of European farming. They conclude that the increased risk of
developing resistance to the few remaining substances could make the
cultivation of many crops, including grapes, wheat, barley, cotton
fresh fruit, potatoes and vegetables, in Europe problematic, and or
uncompetitive. Dramatically increasing food prices are already leading
to an increase in the global demand for agricultural resources as well
as serious crises in several regions of the world.
The Declaration was agreed on during a workshop hosted by Dr
Andrej Simoncic, Director of the Agricultural Institute of Slovenia
and subsequently presented to the Slovenian Agricultural Minister
Iztok Jarc. The scientists´ spokesperson, Dr Ian Denholm, Head, Plant
and Invertebrate Ecology Division, Rothamsted Research, UK pointed out
that, "In order to safeguard the production of food at affordable
prices, it is essential to provide farmers with access to sufficient
diversity of crop protection solutions. This is essential to prevent
or delay the development of resistant pests, and to maintain the
efficacy of remaining crop protection products".
European Union legislation has already resulted in a reduction of
the available portfolio of pesticides by more than 55% over the last
decade. In the opinion of the experts, the policy makers appear to
have overlooked the ever-present threat of pest resistance, which
could lead to significantly lower European farm yields and increased
food and feed prices.
Lack of diversity leads to resistance
Pest populations have the potential to develop resistance to crop
protection products, particularly if they are regularly treated with a
single product type. Once pests have developed a resistance to a
certain group of crop protection products, their effectiveness is
either significantly reduced or lost altogether. In the past, new crop
protection products have often solved the problem. However, it takes
an average of ten years and an investment of about 200 million Euros
to develop and register a new pesticide. Regulatory targets are
already so stringent that the industry is only able to launch about
five new active ingredients per year in Europe. The scientists
therefore expressed their concern that the innovative capacity of the
crop protection industry will not be able to replace the products
which are likely to be removed from the market by the proposed
legislation, or those which will as a result, be lost to resistance.
This would lead to lower crop yields and higher food prices.
From a resistance management point of view, the crop protection
products portfolio in Europe has already been very seriously impaired
by the ongoing EU re-registration process, under Directive 91/414/EEC.
Of the 952 existing crop protection products that existed previously
530 have already been eliminated - and a further significant reduction
in compounds is to be expected.
The current revision process of the Directive 91/414/EEC has been
active since the European Commission presented a proposal in 2006. The
European Parliament went much further with its proposal in the first
reading in October 2007 and added criteria which would contribute to a
further loss of between 70%-85% of remaining active substances. The
Council of Ministers aims to reach a political agreement in May 2008
taking into consideration the Parliament´s proposals.
The scientists who drafted and signed the "Declaration of
Ljubljana" are calling for European politicians to acknowledge the
need to retain sufficient product diversity in order to manage the
threat of resistance development. It appears that this biological
requirement has so far been largely neglected by policy makers. The
scientists are concerned that the proposed European legislation will
force farmers to use a smaller number of substances more intensively.
This would increase the likelihood of resistance developing to the
remaining pesticides, thereby threatening agricultural productivity
and income of European farmers.
Scientific participation
The following scientists took part in the workshop:
-- Dr. Pablo Bielza, Universidad Politecnica de Cartagena (Spain)
-- Dr. Ian Denholm, Rothamsted Research (United Kingdom)
-- Dr. Udo Heimbach, Julius Kuhn Institut (Germany)
-- Dr. Philippos Ioannidis, Plant Protection Institute of
Thessaloniki (Greece)
-- Andy Leadbeater, Fungicide Resistance Action Committee
(Switzerland)
-- Paul Leonard, Insecticide Resistance Action Committee
(Belgium)
-- Lise Nistrup Jorgensen, University of Aarhus (Denmark)
-- Dr. Guido Sterk, Biobest (Belgium)
