Manufacturers of pesticides and bio-pesticides are offering to support the European Green Deal with new measures of their own, provided EU laws allow the use of pesticides.
The European Crop Protection Association (ECPA) plans to invest more than 14 billion euros in new technologies and more sustainable products over the next ten years. However, this requires that EU legislation permits the use of these pesticides.
The ECPA also wants to accelerate waste management and improve the education level of European farmers, citing its support for the 'farm-to-fork' program and the EU biodiversity strategy. The EU Green Deal aims to make Europe a climate-neutral continent by 2050.
To reduce the ecological footprint of food production, the Commission proposes cutting pesticide use by 50 percent and fertilizer use by 20 percent by 2030. One quarter of European farmland should be dedicated to organic farming, up from the current approximately 8 percent.
The crop protection industry further intends to focus on collecting empty plastic packaging and raising the collection rate to 75 percent. In EU countries without collection systems, they want to establish them by 2025. Producers of crop protection products also want to further promote the training of farmers.
Specifically, ECPA will invest 10 billion euros in innovation for precision and digital technologies and 4 billion euros in innovation in biological agents. However, it is warned that these investments are only effective if European legislation is adjusted accordingly. "All investments made by the industry are only useful if there is an appropriate regulatory framework to reach European farmers," the sector federation warned.
Just last week, Switzerland announced that 33 crop protection products have been banned this year, more than ever before in a comparable period, reported NZZ am Sonntag. The bans are a consequence of the EU removing many pesticides from the market years ago. Over the past fifteen years, about 100 crop protection products have been approved in Switzerland, while around 180 have been banned.