Kill or cure?

AFRESH controversy has pitted conservationists against farmers after the Government authorised the use of thiamethoxam, a neonicotinoid pesticide, earlier this month. Dangerous to bees and other pollinators, neonicotinoids are banned in Britain, although a provision for emergency use allowed the NFU and Sugar UK to request permission to protect sugar-beet crops, which was granted, with Defra pointing out that strict criteria are in place.

‘Virus yellows disease can cause huge devastation to a sugar-beet crop and only last year we saw losses of up to 80%,’ says NFU sugar board chairman Michael Sly. ‘If pest pressure is that severe again [meeting a certain scientific threshold], this authorisation will prove invaluable.’ A similar authorisation was granted last year, but the pesticide was never used because the threshold wasn’t reached.

To limit the environmental damage caused by neonicotinoids, the Government attaches conditions, which range from a reduced application rate to the prohibition to plant flowering crop in the same field where the pesticide has been used within 32 months. However, conservationists argue that this is not enough. ‘Neonicotinoid insecticide will travel through the soil into nearby wildflowers, rivers and ponds,’ explains Matt Shardlow of Buglife. ‘When bees and other pollinators feed on the contaminated pollen and nectar, it will poison them. It attacks their nervous system, it reduces their ability to forage effectively, it makes them more vulnerable to disease and it greatly reduces their ability to reproduce.’

Mr Shardlow adds that there could be an even worse impact on ponds and rivers, putting mayflies and other river flies at risk, with ‘no specific effort to reduce that harm’. CP