Agchems ‘vital’ to meet demand for food

Plant protection products must remain on the market if UK growers are to meet rising global demand for food, a leading agrochemical company has warned.
Existing products are vital against a backdrop of rising costs and the increasing time it takes to bring new products to market, said Scott Boothey, UK managing director for Dow AgroSciences.
“We are determined to not only provide innovative products – but also to support them so UK farming keeps as many of its vital crop protection tools as possible,” he said.
Product development costs had increased by more than $100m in just 13 years, Mr Boothey told reporters in London on Friday (6 December).
In 1995, it cost $152m to bring a new product to market, he said in a speech at the Royal Society of Chemistry. But by 2008, the cost had risen to $256m.
During the same period, the amount of time it took to bring a newly discovered molecule to market had increased from an average of eight years to an average of 15 years.
Most of that time was incurred by ever more stringent requirements for detailed analysis and study required before products gained registration, said Mr Boothey.
His comments come amid an ongoing debate about the effect of agricultural pesticides on water courses, bee populations and human health.
Tighter regulations have fuelled concern that more pesticides on which many farmers rely could be withdrawn or restricted – as has already happened to varying degrees with isoproturon, metaldehyde and neonicotinoids.
Earlier this month, it emerged that the government has agreed to tighten rules on pesticide safety assessments in line with recommendations by an independent committee.
The recommendations were made by the Bystander Risk Assessment Working Group (BRAWG), which filed its report in December 2012.
After deliberating for 12 months the government has finally announced it has accepted all of the working group’s recommendations. These include the development of risk assessments for bystanders when pesticides are applied near residential properties.
DEFRA said the policy would apply to all pesticides undergoing the regulatory process and that the update to the risk assessment was in line with the latest science.
It added that it would work closely with the European Food Safety Authority to ensure the BRAWG recommendations were taken forward across Europe.