A 50% cut in pesticide use targeted by the European Commission could reduce crop yields by approximately 30%, new research from Teagasc has shown.

Robert McDougall presented the results of a survey of tillage experts at Wednesday’s National Tillage Conference.

The survey of a panel of experts outlined what they think would happen to crop yields if a list of active ingredients in pesticides classified as “candidates for substitution” are reduced in use by 50% and if integrated pest management techniques were applied to make up for the loss of chemistry.

These active ingredients include the aphicide Lambda used to control aphids in cereals, herbicides diflufenican and flufenacet, the most common winter cereal herbicides in use, and a number of common fungicides.

The results showed that all cereal crops would see a yield decline by cutting the rate of certain chemicals by 50%.

The expert opinions outlined that the use of integrated pest management or cultural control methods could not make up for the loss of chemistry. In the case of herbicides, it was likely that the impact on yield would get worse as time goes on, as resistance would be likely to build up to the chemistry in use when cutting rates.

Gene editing

Access to more resistant varieties and new genomic techniques, such as gene editing, could help to counteract some of these losses.

At last week’s Irish Farmers' Association annual general meeting, European Commissioner for Agriculture Christophe Hansen said he wants to relaunch work on allowing the use of new genomic techniques (NGTs).

He noted that NGTs could allow the use of less pesticides. He said EU farmers must not “miss the train” and be left behind.

You can see the full details of the survey in this week's paper and online.