State of affairs implementation program Future Vision Crop Protection 2030

The immediate reason for drafting the Future Vision Crop Protection 2030 (2019) and the accompanying Implementation Program (2021) was the observation that the crop protection policy was insufficient to achieve the set goals of water quality and biodiversity, among others.

The package of available crop protection products would also change/shrink drastically due to tightened European approval criteria. These developments are making adequate crop protection increasingly difficult and resistance is lurking. Growers urgently need innovative measures and means to control diseases, pests and weeds.

Developments in the year 2024 have shown that the urgency is as high as ever. Local residents are concerned about their health and are filing lawsuits. Furthermore, the number of standard violations of plant protection products in surface water is decreasing less rapidly than seen in recent years, while the goals of the Water Framework Directive must be met in 2027. European approval of several active substances was not renewed. At the same time, bottlenecks in some crops showed that the need for plant protection products is still very high.

On the positive side, more and more active substances are being approved that are of biological origin and can mostly be classified as low-risk substances. These substances are usually not a one-to-one replacement for chemical-synthetic substances. Promising precision application techniques are also coming on the market or are under development that can substantially reduce use and emissions.

Fedecom is represented in various working groups under the program that focus primarily on technology. For your information, please review the annual plan and the letter from the Minister of Agriculture sent to the House of Representatives on April 14.