towards a return of neonicotinoids in French fields?

As the beet season draws to a close, Alexandre Quillet is relieved because his harvest is good. Nothing to do with last year. “When I sow beets, I sow to make 100 tons. The good year I make 110, the bad I make 90. Last year I made 58. It was a disaster“, he recalls. As a reminder, 2020 was a dark year for growers who suffered early attacks from aphids, causing the leaves to turn yellow before dropping them.

And if farmers are enraged, it is because since 2018, their best weapon against this scourge has been banned in Europe. “As long as we don’t have alternative solutions, we won’t be able to do without neonicotinoids if we want to be sure of having a normal result.“, warns the producer and president of the beet union of Eure. “There are already alternatives with the installation of hedges, grass strips, with longer rotations, with reductions in doses of the products that are“, retorts Thibault Leroux, responsible for the France Nature Environment agriculture mission for whom “it is not acceptable to obtain a new derogation on all sugar beet surfaces in FranceThis derogation should be recorded this Sunday, following a public consultation which has lasted for several months.