Schouten: 'Weighing honeydew in assessment'

Minister Carola Schouten (Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality) wants exposure via honeydew to plant protection products to be included in the assessment. This is the result of a recent study into a new route of exposure of neonicotinoids to insects. 

From the research shows that beneficial insects are exposed to the neonicotinoids via honeydew. This exposure is currently not yet taken into account in the assessment of plant protection products. In a Letter to Parliament Minister Schouten says that the Board for the Authorization of Plant Protection Products and Biocides (Ctgb) has promised that it will ask the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to include this exposure route in the assessment frameworks. By this she means, among other things, the EFSA bee guideline (Bee Guidance).

Since the use of neonicotinoids has already been significantly curtailed, the Ctgb does not consider it necessary to have the products reassessed on the basis of this exposure route. Minister Schouten writes this in an answer to parliamentary questions from Laura Bromet (GroenLinks). 

Broad-acting resources
Bromet also asked the minister whether she agrees with the researchers from Wageningen University (WUR), who state that new strategies for crop protection should be developed. These should then not be dependent on broad spectrum insecticides (such as neonicotinoids).

Schouten answers from the vision crop protection 2030, that there must be a turnaround in the use of plant protection products. The aim of this is, among other things, to achieve a reduction in substance use.

Anne-Jan Doorn

Anne Jan Doorn is an arable expert at Boerenbusiness. He writes about the various arable farming markets and also focuses on the land and energy market.

aj.doorn@boerenbusiness. Nl

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