Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau said on Thursday he expected an extension to 2023 of the exception allowing beet growers to use neonicotinoids, insecticides that are harmful to bees and have been banned in France since 2018.
At the end of 2020, Parliament authorized its temporary return in a position to support the sugar beet sector, weakened by the proliferation of jaundice vector aphids.
The law specified that the exceptions could be granted up to July 2023, only for beet seeds and with mandatory renewal every year.
The “first step” is “extend the exception”
In a video broadcast this Thursday during the General Assembly of the General Confederation of Beet Growers (CGB), Marc Fesneau said that while waiting for alternatives to these insecticides, the “first step” was to “extend the derogation” for the planting of the year 2023.
“A third is coming (repeal, editor’s note), in any case I hope and believe that it will be useful, to be able to repeal and fight effectively against jaundice while waiting for alternative solutions”, declared the minister.
Alternatives to seeds coated with neonicotinoids, substances that contribute to massive bee colony declines, have been experimenting since 2020.
The European Union also banned since 2018 the use in the open field, for all crops, of three neonicotinoids (clothianidin, thiamethoxam and imidacloprid). However, 11 of its member states have adopted “emergency authorizations” to deal with falling yields, including France.
Source: BFM TV
