Ahead of the decision on the renewal of the authorisation of glyphosate in the EU, which is expected this year, and at a time of criticism of the EU’s target of a 50% reduction in pesticide use by 2030, the NGO PAN Europe - in collaboration with the Greens/EFA in the European Parliament - published a report on Thursday 9 March to prove that alternatives to glyphosate exist and are cost-effective.
The report presents the range of these alternatives which are already available and used by organic farmers and those practising integrated weed management. It stresses that farmers and traditional growers need to make much wider use of these tools and that there is a need to expand and improve existing non-chemical tools while developing new approaches. Taking glyphosate-based herbicides as a reference, the analysis presents a wide variety of weed management approaches that can achieve very effective weed control without the use of herbicides.
“Mulching, livestock management, crop rotation - organic farmers have been doing it for 70 years”, stressed Simon Gergely of PAN Europe, presenting the report to the press as “a recipe book for working without glyphosate”. According to him, moving from pesticide-based to pesticide-free farming is not a risk, but an opportunity, including for the profitability of agriculture.
“We need to rethink the notion of a weed. Some of them are essential for soil health and help to protect biodiversity”, added Sarah Wiener (Greens/EFA, German), rapporteur for the proposed regulation on the sustainable use of pesticides.
According to the report, by integrating physical, mechanical, biological and ecological farming practices with extensive knowledge of the biological and ecological characteristics of crops and weeds, farmers can successfully control weeds without herbicides while maintaining yields, avoiding the development of resistance in weed species, protecting soil health and biodiversity, and minimising erosion.
Benoît Biteau (Greens/EFA, French) welcomed “the global approach of the report, which does not only deal with health aspects - which are very important - but also with climate and biodiversity” and which “demonstrates that an alternative to herbicides, including glyphosate, can be found in the science of agronomy”.
In his view, “in a context where farmers are having difficulties, going green is a way to get out of the red” - which is why the common agricultural policy should support them in changing their practices. “The CAP does not discourage them from using pesticides. We also need to build downstream value chains based on longer crop rotation. It is the basic tool of agronomy. For agronomy to be effective, we need to offer opportunities and get away from contradictory injunctions”, he added.
See the report: https://aeur.eu/f/5pn (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)