Interview George Baecke
'Cabinet must support knowledge sharing on a long-term basis'
A sector in which only plant protection products are used with virtually no emissions to the environment and which leave virtually no residues on products for consumption. That is the aim of the 'Implementation Program for the Future Vision for Crop Protection 2030', in which LTO Nederland has also contributed. Joris Baecke, portfolio holder Healthy Plants at LTO Nederland, tells more about it.
The 'Implementation Program for the Future Vision for Crop Protection 2030' is last week presented and compiled by the cabinet and a large group of organizations from agriculture and horticulture, phytopharmaceuticals and nature and environmental protection. They want to achieve a trend break in crop protection with this. "This process was already running before the Green Deal was presented, but the government and the participating parties now see it as the Dutch answer to the Green Deal. It is a more realistic variant. Farm to Fork has too ambitious regulations, but we are going for goals with preconditions. The program is much better developed and unlike a political document (which is the Farm to Fork), this is a roadmap to the future."
Where is the focus for LTO Nederland in the program?
"Our main point is that the grower must be the focus. The grower must be able to continue to grow healthy crops and the program must provide the possibilities for that. New restrictions and requirements are constantly being imposed without farmers being rewarded for the effort they make to All too often a wish list is first made and the bullet 'earnings model' is at the bottom. We now wanted to prevent that. In addition, it is important that the parties at the table jointly bear the responsibility to achieve the set goals. that way the program is realistically executable."
"Finally, we as LTO Netherlands underline the importance of a level playing field. If requirements are imposed on Dutch or European producers, it cannot be the case that products that do not meet these are allowed on the European market. discussion about free trade, but it also ensures that European producers compete with their hands tied behind their backs.If it does not work through import restrictions, then it must be secured within the chain. Because if we do not organize a level playing field for growers, then no steps can be taken towards a future with fewer emissions and residues."
Minister Schouten has already indicated that it is difficult to prescribe the same guidelines nationally. This is because the situation differs per farmer. How does the Crop Protection Implementation Program deal with this?
"In short, the Implementation Program should ensure a better-stocked toolbox where every grower can unpack tooling resources (i.e. resources, measures and techniques) at his own discretion. The long-term goal is to discover what makes cultivation systems more resistant to diseases and pests, without having to intervene automatically. This requires much more knowledge about the soil and soil-plant interactions, but also about natural defense mechanisms of plants and functional agrobiodiversity. This knowledge can be used in breeding programs. If we want to have resilient plants at our disposal, the new breeding techniques will be allowed in Europe. Even if the NBTs are admitted quickly, 2030 is already very close. So a strong lobby has to be set up towards Brussels, we have no time to lose."
How are the results of the studies ultimately transferred to practice?
"The usual route is: from universities and research locations to regional experimental farms and experimental gardens and from the experimental farm or the experimental garden picked up by growers to practice. But, it probably won't be that easy. A lot of research has to be done and that is not possible all at the same time. A classification will therefore be made according to priority. As far as LTO Nederland is concerned, the short-term bottlenecks are the first to be discussed. If we do not do this, the final goal in 2030 for many crops will not be attainable in advance. Regional knowledge sharing is essential to successfully transfer new findings into practice."
You mention knowledge sharing as an important spearhead. How do you convince farmers to invest time in this?
"We don't want the entire government budget of €12 million for the first 3 years to go to research alone. We definitely need to invest in knowledge sharing. Then we are thinking of pilots and study groups on topics from the Implementation Programme. The contribution made by the sector is the time, energy and knowledge of the growers, as well as the investments made due to changing regulations. We are looking to governments and the other partners for additional financing. We know that regional knowledge sharing is already taking place and with success. you can accelerate developments, but it does require investments. Minister Schouten has promised resources for a certain period, but the next cabinet must also continue that line for many years to come."
Isn't a period of 10 years a bit short to achieve all these goals?
"Obviously there are goals in the plan that are quite ambitious and 10 years will soon be over, we have to be honest about that. We also see the limited time as a big stick to quickly work on solving the current bottlenecks in many crops. As LTO Netherlands, we have stated from the start: "The longer it takes for current bottlenecks to be resolved, the more unlikely it is to achieve the 2030 targets." Previously, smaller crops in particular were hindered by restrictions on the field of crop protection products, but this is gradually applying to all crops. It is now expected that more bottlenecks will be added than will be solved. Experts have tested the process and indeed conclude that the complete transition may need longer, rather until 2040 or 2050, but we also didn't want to put the dot too far in the future, which removes all the urgency, including the developments in favor of the growers are then postponed.”
In this way, don't we see the Netherlands too much as an island, instead of a part of the world?
"That must not happen indeed. Policy is not only changing in the Netherlands. Elsewhere in the world, crops and crop protection products are also looked at differently and the authorization policy is also changing in those regions. Nevertheless, a precondition for LTO Nederland is a level playing field, with which we can want to prevent us from becoming an island. I believe that the 'Farm-to-Fork' strategy is thinking like an island. This policy by European Commissioner Frans Timmermans is not consistent, because production that does not meet our requirements is allowed A government that only thinks in terms of do's and don'ts, that doesn't work. To prevent us from thinking like an island, we have discussed the goals, the preconditions and critical success factors with all parties involved. It must be feasible for growers."
Kimberly Baker
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