A quarter of the crop protection toolbox in Europe could be withdrawn from the market before the 2018 harvest if reauthorisations were complicated by political issues, NFU analysis showed.
NFU vice-president Guy Smith and combinable crops board chairman Mike Hambly warned confidence in the EU regulatory system had been badly damaged by the glyphosate saga, which was going down to the wire.
On June 23, a European Commission appeal committee would seek agreement on a revised proposal to relicense the herbicide for 18 months, following three failed attempts to gain sufficient member state support for future use of the herbicide in the EU.
If no decision was reached – and with Germany’s position set to be pivotal – the commission would have a week to decide whether to adopt the proposal before glyphosate’s licence expired on July 1.
“Glyphosate is a game-changer. Delays in its reauthorisation have highlighted how vulnerable Europe really is when it comes to pressure from NGOs," Smith said.
“EFSA gave diquat a less-favourable report than glyphosate. Can you imagine trying to harvest oilseed rape without glyphosate or diquat?”
Guy Smith
NFU vice-president
“Precedents are being set. We used to assume if the European Food Safety Authority [EFSA] gave a chemical a positive report, it would be reauthorised. This is no longer a given.”
He highlighted the herbicide diquat, up for renewal in 2017, as another chemical under immediate threat.
“EFSA gave diquat a less-favourable report than glyphosate. Can you imagine trying to harvest oilseed rape without glyphosate or diquat?”
In addition to the relicensing process key chemicals, such as triazole fungicides, were under threat from the commission’s plans to restrict chemicals deemed to be endocrine disruptors.
Smith said the situation demanded a fresh approach to the way the NFU lobbied on plant protection products, a process further complicated by the outcome of the EU referendum.
For example, if the UK remained in the EU, it would increasingly work with EU farm body Copa-Cogeca and other member state farming unions to present arguments to retain the chemicals on an EU, rather than UK, basis.
Hambly urged the farming industry to work together to prepare its case, including encouraging farmers to be “confident in talking more about what they do and telling their stories to regulators”.
In his opening speech at Cereals, NFU president Meurig Raymond said he thought glyphosate would be reauthorised, an opinion backed up by farm consultant Richard King, who wrote a report on loss of pesticide active ingredients two years ago.
