PJ Phelan: Why the EU needs to relax GMO rules to reduce pesticide use

The minimum we need to achieve is a 50 percent reduction in pesticide use by 2030.

Technologies like precision farming can optimize the use of pesticides, but farmers need extensive research and industry support so they can continue to produce food to meet growing demand.

Our entire way of thinking has to change in order to meet the reduction requirements.

When choosing a variety, more emphasis needs to be placed on disease resistance than on yield potential.

Perhaps this approach could lead to yield losses of 20%, which would require 20% more grain acreage to maintain current production levels.

While European consumers appear to want reduced use of pesticides, they are also opposed to the use of GMOs and the more benign CRISPR technologies.

Farmers are thus denied the tools to produce disease-resistant varieties in less time and at less cost than conventional breeding.

The first simple step to enabling major advances is to give European agriculture access to the technologies available to our American competitors.

If there are fears that allowing GMOs will give multinationals even more power, our regulators need to address them.

Another major problem is the ongoing deterioration in water quality. We have a lot of regulation and enforcement, but we fail to find the right balance.

Dairy farmers are responding by trying to expand their land base and pushing arable and beef farmers off their traditionally farmed lands.

The regulations allow dairy farmers to feed as much concentrate feed as they want – made with fertilizers bought from arable farmers – and return all the manure produced by their animals to their land, regardless of its phosphorus (P) content in the soil.

This is certainly not a sustainable practice and does not help balance the farm’s P-status.

The revised nitrate regulations require that from 1 January P can only be applied to farmland where a valid soil analysis test shows that the land has a P requirement; The same applies to all livestock farmers whose organic nitrogen (N) production is more than 130 kg.

The new fertilizer register comes out on the same day so farmers who don’t comply will be identified.

Slurry/FYM must not be imported unless you have a nutrient management plan that shows a need for P. The pressure on soil labs will be intense next spring, so the sooner you get soil samples taken and sent in, the better.

Arable farmers who depend on leased land have to deal intensively with their farm structure and pay particular attention to their machine strategy.

The financial feasibility of purchasing a machine brings with it a commitment to conserve a given area of ​​land.

If this is at risk, it may be wiser to contact a contractor, make a short-term rental, or team up with a neighbor. The availability of skilled workers is an increasing problem and must be taken into account in all planning.

PJ Phelan is a tillage consultant in Tipperary; he is a member of the ACA and the ITCA