Further blow to cereal growers

Cereal growers in Scotland’s have been dealt another serious blow with the de-registration of yet another major plant protection product which plays a key role in defending crops from disease in the damp climate.

Less than a year after the de-registration of the of the widely used fungicide chlorothalonil, growers this week learned that another widely used product, epoxiconazole, will also have its approval for use withdrawn.

And farmers have reacted angrily to the news, claiming that the decision owed more to politics than science - as the move was announced before a major assessment of the product’s safety was completed.

While the product was undergoing a routine periodic review along with 34 other chemicals, some EU member states declared that if epoxicanazole was included they would vote against the proposal to extend expiry dates for all 35 actives.

“As the evaluation of epoxiconazole hadn’t even been finished at the time, it would appear this decision was political rather than based on evidence, scientific knowledge and expert evaluation” said NFU Scotland cereal farmer, Willie Thomson. The agro-chemical company funding the appraisal procedure subsequently withdrew epoxicanazole entirely from the EU review process.

As a result, approval of the product ends on 30 April 2020 - however the UK’S Chemicals Registration Division have allowed sale and supply to continue until the end of October 2020 while disposal, storage and use can continue until 31 October 2021.

Thomson said the loss would force farmers to decide between using more expensive options or lower yields - whilst competing with cheaper imports that didn’t meet UK standards.