‘Minor Uses’ Pesticide Fund

A new fund hasbeen established to try and improve access to pesticides for ‘minor uses’.  This covers plants grown on a limited acreage, such as fruit, vegetables, hops, rice and flowers.  Farm Ministers have pledged  €350,000 per year for the next three years to support the co-operation and co-ordination of research projects to improve the availability of products in this area.  The European fund will be matched by Member States.  The establishment of the fund comes after a long-awaited report was published in February (two years later than timetabled) following calls from the sector that the lack of investment and research into pesticides for ‘minor uses’ was affecting the long term competitiveness of the industry.