Stewardship crucial to success of European crops

As new EU legislation on the approval and use of pesticides takes effect, continued progress in stewardship will be critical to the future success of the European crop protection sector. That was the key message delivered by Dominic Dyer, Chief Executive of the UK Crop Protection Association as he opened 2010 Ag Chem Forum in Lyon on 8th September.

Addressing an audience of over 300 industry experts and policy makers from across Europe, Dyer said that with growing concerns over rising food prices and the global food security threat, the economic importance of crop protection to the European food chain was now widely recognised by policy makers and politicians.

But he also warned that the crop protection industry could not afford to take its eye off the ball in maintaining public confidence in the safe and sustainable use of pesticides and must continue to drive higher standards of stewardship across the sector.

"As an industry we have made enormous progress over the past decade, in areas such as spray equipment testing and maintenance, application technology, sprayer operator exposure and residue reduction management," said Mr Dyer.

"However as we look to the future and the implementation of the EU Sustainable Use and Water Framework Directives, we must continue to focus industry resources and expertise on tackling key issues such as water quality standards and biodiversity protection.

"The EU crop protection industry is the most highly regulated sector of the chemical industry and public health and environmental safety are at the heart of everything we do. Without effective crop protection tools, Europe’s farmers could not produce the quantity of safe, high quality, affordable food which is of critical importance to us all.

"We can be proud of our achievements and the wider public good we contribute to society, but we must also ensure that that we continue to set the highest possible stewardship standards for our products across the agriculture, amenity and garden sectors," said Mr Dyer.