Urgent call for EU pesticides proposals impact assessment

The Government's pesticides watchdog, the Pesticides Safety Directorate (PSD), has warned that the face of British agriculture could be about to change dramatically if European politicians agree to new pesticides proposals.

The European Commission's proposed hazard based cut-off criteria for the approval of active substances in pesticides could slash cereal yields by nearly a third, says the PSD.

The removal of triazole compounds would harm control programmes for the major wheat disease in the UK, septoria tritici, with potential for 20-30 per cent yield losses.

The European Parliament has proposed a range of amendments in its first reading that make these criteria even more onerous.

Incredibly, given the PSD conclusions, neither the Commission nor the Parliament have conducted an impact assessment into their proposed 'cut-off' criteria.