Grape Experts Debate Impact of New EU Pesticide Regime

New active ingredients with high efficacy and a favorable regulatory profile could provide winegrowers with alternatives. BASF products with the new active ingredient Initium, such as the fungicide Enervin, will fit perfectly into the crop protection toolbox of winegrowers.

5 Apr 2010 --- The challenges European winegrowers will face when member states implement the EU’s new pesticide package were front and center at a two-day symposium hosted by BASF. Leading winegrowing experts mapped out the practical implications of the Framework Directive on the sustainable use of pesticides and exchanged the latest research results.

The introduction of the pesticide package will mean a fundamental change in European agriculture, with each member state responsible for hammering out plans to ensure that farmers use non-chemical crop protection methods whenever possible and adopt some form of Integrated Pest Management (IPM).

"In Italy, grape growers started working according to the principles of IPM a long time ago,” says Dr. Tiziano Galassi, Executive Plant Protection Service, Agricultural Department Emilia Romagna Region, who was one of the speakers in the discussion on sustainability. “To strengthen these measures, we need to foster an open dialogue and partnerships with all stakeholders, including industry. This is the only way we can make real progress in sustainable agriculture.”

Dr. José Luís Perez Marín, Crop Protection Department of S.I.D.T.A., pointed to another concern among winegrowers: “We will have major problems in the Spanish Rioja region when the new pesticide package takes effect. Farmers will be loosing important tools needed to protect their crops, and there are few alternatives in sight. By reducing the number of pesticides available to winegrowers, the new EU regime will make it much more difficult to prevent resistance developing to few remaining products. Imagine the government decided to leave only one or two antibiotics on the market, the people would be up in arms!”

New active ingredients with high efficacy and a favorable regulatory profile could provide winegrowers with alternatives. BASF products with the new active ingredient Initium, such as the fungicide Enervin, will fit perfectly into the crop protection toolbox of winegrowers. Field trials have shown Initium to be a highly selective and effective fungicide to prevent downy mildew in wine grapes. It also has an excellent environmental profile and requires fewer applications because of its long-lasting activity of up to 14 days. Thus it fits perfectly into a more sustainable viticulture.

“All involved stakeholders agreed in the necessity of fostering an open dialogue and joint efforts,” says Nader Mahmoud, Head of BASF Crop Protection in South Europe, summarizing the discussion. “Only this way it will be possible to come up with the needed solutions for a sustainable viticulture.”