Published41 minutes ago
Sugar beet farmers have the green light to use a banned pesticide deadly to bees following a forecast that a virus could sweep through their crops.
Emergency authorisation to use neonicotinoids was given in January but rested on a threat level being met.
Supplier British Sugar said the predicted infection rate was now 83% of crop and was “historically high”.
Defra said the decision to approve was not “taken lightly” but campaigners said it made “a mockery” of the ban.
Neonicotinoids are toxic to pollinating bees, disrupting their ability to navigate and reproduce. But some sugar beet farmers say the pesticides are needed to protect against the disease known as virus yellows.
The threat level posed by the virus had to be independently scientifically-verified by Rothamsted Research in its virus yellows forecast model as being above 65% of crop potentially affected before final permission for the pesticide to be used could be given.
Chair of the NFU’s sugar board Michael Sly, who farms land in north Cambridgeshire and south Lincolnshire, said the sugar beet sector – which supports more than 9,500 jobs – was “facing a significant threat” from the disease, which is spread by aphids, and “can decimate crops”.
Dan Green, agriculture director for British Sugar – which supplies 60% of the UK’s sugar – added that the pesticide was needed “to protect the UK sugar beet crop and farmer livelihoods”.
“This year’s forecast for virus yellows infection is historically high
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