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Tillage Industry Ireland CLG

None

To protect and promote the interests of the tillage sector in Ireland, and to take such lawful steps as may seem advisable to advance and protect such interests.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Maria Walsh (Member of the European Parliament) and Irish Farmers' Association

23 Apr 2025 · Agricultural policy

Meeting with Janusz Wojciechowski (Commissioner) and

25 May 2023 · Interview with Irish Farmers Journal

Response to Sustainable use of pesticides – revision of the EU rules

16 Sept 2022

Tillage Industry Ireland represents the tillage sector in Ireland. Its members include suppliers of inputs, growers, merchants, and advisors. Our objective is to realise the Irish Government’s stated objective to increase the tillage area in Ireland. In doing so Ireland will become less reliant on imports and the agriculture sector will reduce its carbon emissions. We cannot currently achieve this without the use of pesticides to control disease in crops, and to enable conservation tillage. Over time we have reduced our use of pesticides, and we don’t understand the basis for the current objective to reduce by 50%. We are unaware of any scientific basis for this proposed reduction – it seems to us to be an arbitrary figure. Moreover, we understand that all of the pesticides available to us currently have been rigorously assessed by the relevant agencies in Europe, before being approved for use. This testing is not just for efficacy, but includes assessment of risk to humans, animals, and the environment. If we rely on the regulatory system to be robust (we do and understand that EU Commission agrees), then why has the EU Commission proposed a reduction in use of approved products of 50%? What are we trying to achieve? We also sense that there is an implication in the proposed requirements for growers to record their usage in a public system and take advice from ‘independent’ advisers, which infers that the current practices are motivated by commercial interests. We reject that implication. Our network of qualified advisers, who maintain their qualification through annual continuing professional education, are giving scientifically-based advice to growers – they would not remain in their roles for very long if they weren’t. The pace of development of new tools to enable our sector is too slow, and the proposed regulation does nothing to change the situation. Rather the proposed regulation seems to focus on reducing the tools available. It would be better to speed up the development of new tools – plant breeding techniques, biopesticides and precision application techniques, some of which could replace the need for pesticides achieving a reduction in use by substitution rather than by trying to force a reduction in pesticide use when the challenges they manage still exist. So we ask the EU Commission to: 1) Revaluate the regulation to clarify what it is trying to achieve. Base the regulation on sound scientific advice. Tillage cannot operate without tools to manage pests and diseases. 2) Recognise the value of tillage in addressing environmental challenges. 3) Recognise the value of advice given by qualified professional pesticide advisers. 4) Speed up the evaluation and authorisation of new tools to enable tillage farmers manage the challenges of pests and diseases.
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