The latest version of proposals to allow national bans on the cultivation of EU-approved genetically modified crops suggests that deals could be reached with companies to exclude countries from their marketing plans. A compromise proposal, drawn up by the Danish EU Presidency, also seeks to broaden the range of environmental reasons that member states could invoke for restricting GM crop cultivation. The Danish officials are seeking to break the stalemate on the issue that has persisted since ...

Denmark is considering the introduction of a new pesticide tax on farmers to “encourage” them to use fewer and less harmful pesticides. The Ministry of Environment has prepared the proposal with the intention of cutting applications by a third. The “intelligent” tax would make the most harmful pesticides the most expensive, and the least harmful ones the cheapest. Some insecticides could increase in cost from DKK 60 ($10) per ha to DKK 400 ($70) per ha, while other “environmentally friendly” ...

Bayer CropScience has debuted a fungicide formulation based on its new active ingredient, fluopyram, in Turkey. The country granted registration late last year, and it is the first confirmed product approval for a fungicide based on the active ingredient. Luna Experience (fluopyram 200 g/litre + tebuconazole 200 g/litre) is a suspension concentrate formulation for use on nine crops, including apples for the control of scab (Venturia inaequalis), on grapevines against powdery mildew (Uncinula ...

The European Commission has proposed the addition of six agrochemical active ingredients and one non-crop biocide to chemicals that are subject to water pollution controls. The pesticides are: the herbicides, aclonifen and bifenox, the insecticide, cypermethrin, the acaricide, dicofol, the insecticide, heptachlor, and the fungicide, quinoxyfen. The biocide is the insecticide/acaricide, dichlorvos. The move follows a review of some 2,000 chemicals to see if they should be included in those ...

The setting of criteria for EU member states to ban the cultivation of EU-approved genetically modified crops occupied centre stage during the year, despite the fact that it was also the year when the EU agrochemical Regulation (1107/2009) was incorporated into national law in EU member states. The stage was set at the beginning of 2011 when the European Commission bowed to pressure from member states and agreed to produce a list of possible reasons for imposing restrictions or bans on GM ...

Three regulators delivered advice and warnings to delegates at the Agchem Forum last month onthe EU’s new zonal pesticide approval system. The EU agrochemical registration Regulation (1107/2009) requires member states to accept product evaluations done by a rapporteur member state (RMS) in the same zone. The EU has been divided into three geographical zones, northern, central and southern. The Regulation came into force on June 14th. The development of the system has not been without ...

A scientific approach towards the interpretation of rules under the EU agrochemical registration Regulation (1107/2009) would be the key to its success. That was the position of the industry and most regulators at Informa’s Registration of Agrochemicals in Europe conference in Brussels this month. The conference was opened by consultant Terry Tooby, who was the chairman, as he wondered aloud whether the EU was ploughing a lone furrow in going in for excessively stringent pesticide regulations ...

The EU agrochemical registration Regulation (1107/2009), which came into force last year, still arouses mixed emotions among various constituents of the crop protection industry. Ambiguities about the new rules persist, as do the fears about the likely deleteriousimpact on the industry. These were brought out in presentations and discussion at the Informa Life Sciences’ “Crop Protection: Off-Patent Products and Generics” conference in November. Darren Flynn of the UK Chemical Regulations ...