Report: UK Growers Spent Extra $33 Million Following Neonic Ban

According to a report carried out by Rural Business Research, growers in England spent an additional $33.4 million (£22 million) using alternative chemistry to tackle flea beetle on winter oilseed rape crops following the ban on neonicotinoids.

In some cases this resulted in multiple extra applications of broad-spectrum pyrethroid insecticides to try and curb the pest damage.

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The area of winter oilseed rape grown for harvest in 2015 in England is estimated to be 8% less than that grown for the 2014 harvest at 577,000 ha. A survey was conducted of 205 Farm Business Survey farms selected in proportion to the number of growers by region, and where possible, by county.

The survey investigated the reasons for increasing or decreasing the area grown and strategies and chemicals used to combat actual, or expected cabbage stem flea beetle attacks (CSFB). The main reasons given for the area reduction were “rotation” and “price” with CSFB problems coming in third. An estimated 240,000 liters of insecticide, mainly pyrethroid-based, was applied to winter oilseed rape crops to combat actual or predicted attacks by CSFB.

It wasn’t until the end of the season, in late July, that the UK government – at the urging of the National Farmers Union (NFU), whose initial application was denied – approved an emergency derogation for neonicotinoid-treated seeds in limited parts of the country – those areas deemed to be the most at risk from cabbage stem flea beetle.

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The authorization came with strings attached: It lasted for 120 days and covered just 5% of the oilseed rape crop in England, which amounts to around 30,000 hectares.

“It was a purely arbitrary amount, but since it was so late in the season being given, maybe — from a distribution perspective — that was just as well,” says Julian Little, Communications & Government Affairs Manager with Bayer CropScience.

“(The restrictions of the suspension) means the vast majority of UK farmers are still denied access to this technology and therefore the overall effect is limited,” says Adam Speed, spokesman for the Crop Protection Association. He tells FCI, “We’ll be looking at this winter’s oilseed rape crop with interest.”

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