News Crop protection
Glyphosate ban on Brabant leased land
Agricultural entrepreneurs who want to lease land from the province of Noord-Brabant will no longer be allowed to use the herbicide glyphosate from 2019. Those who carry out their weed control in an alternative way therefore have a greater chance of being awarded the plot.
It is not the first time that a glyphosate ban has been included in the tenant rules. The grounds of Natuurnetwerk Brabant may already not be sprayed with glyphosate. From 2019, the leased land of the province of Noord-Brabant will be added reported.
Effort by tenant
The ban does not only look at the highest bid, but also at the efforts potential tenants are willing to make for the land. Priority is given to those who demonstrably take good care of water management, improve soil fertility and enhance biodiversity. Anyone who reverts to glyphosate will pay a fine. In addition, the entrepreneur is not allowed to register on leased land from the province for 3 years.
This requirement is slightly less far-reaching than the issue to purely organic companies. In Friesland and Groningen, for example, this has already been done before argued and in North Holland it is already a reality.
bee protection
With the adjustment of the rules, the province is playing for its own judge. It even goes in the reports that it can be proven that bees die earlier due to the use of glyphosate. The board is referring to an American study that was conducted earlier this year published† "Glyphosate by itself didn't kill the bees," it concluded. "Only when the young worker bees were administered a pathogenic bacterium did they die en masse: 90%, compared to 50% when only the pathogen got the disease. 20% died without infection and without glyphosate. Researchers suspect that glyphosate increases the susceptibility to infection."
Besides the fact that the province is good for the bees, it mentions another reason. The province wants to analyze whether the concentration of glyphosate in the water (Meuse river basin) will decrease if glyphosate is banned. This will be measured again in 2022. According to the province, the conclusions from this can be used to take measurement measures.
Green Development Fund Brabant
Leased land in the province has been issued since 2016 by the Green Development Fund Brabant. In 2017, they issued 1.000 hectares of leased land through public tender. In total, the portfolio amounts to 3.100 hectares for the province. The Development Fund owns 2.000 hectares of this.
Niels van der Boom
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