gets T&GWU approval
New draft pesticide code has
gets T&GWU approval
A DRAFT industry code of practice on pesticide use will be released shortly for consultation.
Following the T&GWU conference in London, the basis for an agreed industry position was reached.
Both the benefits of, and damage caused by, pesticides were discussed. "By having one platform for all to speak we can hopefully have the facts and make some progress and decide a way forward on the safe use of pesticides," said the organisers.
"We must decide a way forward in reducing the use of pesticides and have an international dimension so that the problem is not just exported to third world countries." Peter Hare, a lecturer from Harper Adams agricultural college, raised Integrated Crop Management as a step in the right direction for reducing pesticide use. He said ICM also addressed crop rotation, soil nutrition and management, along with pollution and waste management that farmers had to address under legislation.
Peter Riley, spokesman for Friends of the Earth, dismissed the concept. Organic production was the only way to reduce pesticide use, he claimed.
The British Agrochemicals Association supported ICM and stated that the UK had the most rigorous controls in the EU on pesticide registration.n