Only in container recycling are French pesticide users
anywhere near as professional as the likes of this year'sFSOOTY, Andrew Myatt, and his Irish
counterpart, Kevin Nolan, who joined theSyngenta
-sponsored trip.
That was the inevitable conclusion after tours of a
demonstration farm growing vines and olives, one of the company's
formulation and packaging plants, and
Cemagref's spray application centre - all close to
Montpellier.
Compulsory sprayer testing is only just starting and there is no
NRoSO equivalent, the
visitors heard at Cemagref centre which houses a sophisticated wind
tunnel.
Both operators were impressed by the
Adivalor countrywide system of recycling being employed at
Chateau St Louis La Perdrix, one of 12 farms in Syngenta's
Ageris network which aims to promote best practice, protect
water and enhance biodiversity.
Backed by manufacturers and distributors of more than 90% of
France's pesticides, it collects empty containers in large plastic
bags for recycling. All products qualifying for the scheme are
marked as such.
The cost is built into product prices, explained Syngenta's
Michel Leborgne. "It's like the recycling tax for cars and
computers."
The scheme contrasts with the several competing ones in the UK.
"The single system available for the farmer, where the chemical
distributor takes back the sorted clean recyclables within the
product cost may be simpler and more efficient," said Mr Myatt.
Adivalor also allows farmers to safely dispose of unused
pesticides and those no longer approved. Depending on the product
the cost is E2-5/kg.
The farm is also being used to demonstrate a newly designed
alternative to biobeds for safely disposing of diluted pesticides
and sprayer washings.
Designed by Mr Leborgne, the
Héliosec relies on the dehydrating effect of sun and wind to
evaporate water to leave a solid residue which can be collected by
distributors for safe disposal.
Sold as a simple kit which can be assembled in two hours it
consists of a 2m x 3m x 0.5m 3000-litre tank surrounded by a mesh
guard, the whole unit being covered by a transparent sloping
plastic roof.
The tank is lined with a plastic sheet which can be replaced
with a new one when dehydration is complete.
The units, which cost E5000 each including a full feasibility
assessment, were launched in January, since when 41 have been
installed on French farms, said Mr Leborgne.
In the south of France, where the temperature during the tour
reached 42C, each unit can dehydrate about 4500-litres a year. But
even in the north of the country, where conditions are more akin to
those in the UK, 2500litres a year is easily achieved. It is wind
as much as the sun that drives the system, he explained.
The distributor disposal charge is E100-150 a sheet and a
replacement costs E20.
"It's everything a waste system should be," said Mr Nolan. "It's
functional, simple, secure, economic, low maintenance,
environmentally-friendly and suitable for all farm sizes."
Work to improve watercourse protection, in the form of grassed
field margins and hedges, is following much the same route as in
the UK, as Syngenta's Olivier Cluzel demonstrated in one of the
farm's 60ha of vineyards.
A 10m grass strip intended to reduce run-off also encouraged
wildlife, he noted. "It's a very important area for insects.
Without insects we have no young birds."
For good drift protection hedges need to be at least the height
of the crop; and
Bordeaux University researchers are monitoring the wildlife
impact of different combinations of hedge heights and margin
widths, he noted.
Experiments in the same vineyard are also being conducted to
help growers meet the French government's target of cutting
pesticide use by half within 10 years.
Weed-suppressing glyphosate will continue to be applied down the
vine rows. In an initial trial the area between the rows, normally
also herbicide treated or cultivated, was sown to grass.
Unfortunately it cut yield from 6000 to 4000 litres/ha, said Mr
Cluzel.
So now the impact of alternately grassing and cultivating
between the rows is being investigated. A similar band-spraying and
between-the-rows cultivation approach is also being trialled in
maize, according to Mr Leborgne.