Stormy waters ahead for new and old chemicals actives

At Goldcrop’s open evening in Dunleer last June, guest-speaker Mairead McGuinness MEP spoke about the many changes that continue to evolve in the European Union (EU).

Consumers, or at least bodies claiming to represent consumers, continue to demand changes.

This is especially important for farmers in terms of how it affects the tools used in tillage, as these continue to come under more and more scrutiny.

McGuinness said a consumer initiative had generated over one million signatures calling for the removal of glyphosate from the market .

This active is the flagship of the current move against chemicals.

McGuinness commented that this is an increasing issue within EU politics, but she commented that these people who want it removed have been out lobbying and generating petitions for its removal.

“But what are farmers, merchants and suppliers doing about it?” she asked.

“The fact that individuals are sitting back waiting for someone else to do something will mean that nothing gets done. And if it does get banned, we will not have done anything to reverse the trend,” McGuinness commented.

That debate does not stop with glyphosate. There are lobbies in place to attack many actives currently in the market and these are becoming stronger.

As a result, many companies now have much less focus on the EU-market as they concentrate more on regions of the world that have become more important for grain production and export. These markets are now being targeted for new plant protection tools as it has become increasingly difficult to secure registration in the EU.

This signals fewer tools for the future. It also signals the need for significant change for growers here.

The pipeline of chemical technology helped us stay ahead of nature in the past -- this has now dried up so we are more exposed to the wrath of nature because of chemical resistance.

New and existing

There are real pressures on the whole EU chemical supply chain into the future.

The lack of new families of actives enables resistance to evolve.

Uncertainty in the EU registration process is forcing manufacturers to look towards other markets. Even new actives coming through are being curtailed.

We may lose all the neonicotinoids making bovine yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) control even more difficult.

A new insecticide group coming through has been substantially delayed. And now there are rumours that it will not be allowed, initially, for BYDV control.

Many growers see Deter seed-dressing as a necessity for early autumn planting.

However, Deter is coming under increasing pressure at authorisation levels, McGuinness reported. And our aparent dependence on it could be said to add pressure for its removal.

Removal of actives

A few weeks ago, the EU Parliament voted to accept a set of proposals that will act to define products with endocrine disruptor properties.

The final phases of this process are now being debated in specific EU committees but the outcome is unlikely to change. However, politicians should still be lobbied.

If this legislation is passed, some actives with known ED hazardous properties may be recalled almost instantly while others will be assessed when they come up for re-registration.

Bit by bit, we are likely to lose a number of important actives.

The European Crop Protection Association published a list of up to 78 actives that could be lost, either because of endocrine disruption characteristics of other concerns.

Some of these products under threat are shown in Table 1.

Listed among these are the majority of triazole fungicides. These would obviously be a loss to foliar disease control but they would be an even bigger loss to the seed dressing market, where they provide a large number of actives.

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