The work of plant doctors is indispensable for sustainable plant protection

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Sándor Farkas stated in his welcome address at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences: the agricultural administration agrees with the implementation of sustainable plant protection, the reduction of the environmental burden, and the mitigation of risks arising from the use of pesticides. At the same time, in the current situation of food security, inflation and burdened by the failed Brussels sanctions, neither the further increase of production costs nor the reduction of production can be accepted. The consequence of this would be an increase in imports with a serious food safety risk.

That would be the optimal situation

The deputy minister explained that Hungary calls for the Union to take into account the different starting points of the member states and the results achieved so far when determining the mandatory national target values related to the use and risk of chemical plant protection products. In recent years, it has taken a lot of effort and a lot of financial resources to preserve and develop Hungary’s agricultural productivity and competitiveness. In order to protect the environment and health more effectively, the European Commission’s proposal to amend the directive on sustainable plant protection aims to achieve a 50 percent reduction in the use and risk of plant protection products by 2030. In the case of Hungary, this would mean that the use of chemical plant protection agents would have to be reduced by 48 percent, while the use of more dangerous plant protection agents would have to be reduced by 60 percent by 2030. The EU’s proposal is unfair, because for years our country’s pesticide use per hectare has been below the EU average: in 2020, for example, the EU average expressed in active ingredients was 2.1 kilograms per hectare, while this figure was 1.7 kilograms in Hungary, he said. Sándor Farkas.

Along with Hungary, several member countries have recently expressed concern about the shortcomings of the impact assessment of the proposal

Consumers have the right to know how much more they will have to pay for food due to the reduction of pesticides. Furthermore, no responsible decision can be made until it is known how much the EU’s agricultural production will decrease as a result of the Commission’s proposal, how many farmers will lose their livelihood, how much food prices will rise and how much import exposure will increase, which will have an unpredictable impact on food security – listed the doubts Sándor Farkas.

The deputy minister emphasized that the application of integrated plant protection is still mandatory

Thus, plant protection products are only applied to the land if absolutely necessary. In this, we can rely on the opportunities provided by agricultural digitization. Modern precision technologies enable a more targeted and reasonable application of plant protection agents, thus reducing the amount of plant protection agents used and the risks of use. For the implementation of sustainable plant protection, in addition to – or rather before – technological development, appropriate expertise is very important. We can be proud of the fact that we are doing well in this area as well, since we have good professionals thanks to our traditions and our excellent training facilities. The role of herbalists in the food chain is decisive, confirmed Sándor Farkas. The cooperation of plant protection specialists and the joint application of integrated plant protection methods ensure the production of healthy food free of pesticide residues.

AM