UK: EU legislation causes issues for Scottish growers
Twenty years ago farmers could select from a range of over 830 EU approved available pesticides. Now the figure is as low as 368 since the introduction of regulation of 1107/2009. More from the list are expected to disappear as the legislation becomes more fully implemented.
The slow down in new products emerging is blamed on the cost of getting a new product registered as fit for use - approximately 300 million Euro. The time-scale from conception to release is also discouraging and can take anything up to a decade or more.
At the same conference the issue of last years rise in the rejection of seed potatoes due to blackleg. Dr Gerry Saddler of the Science and Advice for Scottish Agricultural Agency said he hoped the issue would be a wake up call to growers and that they would tighten up their management. “We may have taken our eye off the ball and we need to remember basic husbandry rules to help keep this disease at bay,” he said.
He acknowledged that more research into the subject would be beneficial, but stated that most of the information required was already common knowledge.
Source: www.scotsman.com
