Plant protection means used in organic farming throughout the European Union

Abstract

Following the obligatory implementation of integrated pest management in the European Union (EU), the plant protection means suitable for application in organic agriculture attracted the attention of quite a wide group of potential users. In spite of the common rules of organic production, as well as the uniform principles of placing plant protection products on the market, the availability of products that can be legally used in organic crop protection differs significantly among the Member States. There is a uniform list of 10 basic substances that can be used in the protection of organic crops throughout the entire EU. Twelve Member States have official registers of plant protection products for use in organic agriculture, and the total number of qualified products per country varies from 11 in Lithuania to 576 in Italy. Some products that improve plant vigour or resistance and may be of use in protection of organic crops are placed on the market as biostimulants. They fall under the law that governs fertilisers and the systems of their registration vary widely among the Member States. In addition, there exist a number of products that have been legally introduced onto the markets of some Member States without registration as a consequence of a loophole in the law. The use of unregistered products in organic agriculture raises some doubts, but currently it seems that there is no legal basis on which to explicitly prohibit the practice. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.

Insect Pest Management in Organic Farming System

“…The crop protection in organic farming is holistic, and, hence, it is extremely difficult to separate inputs as plant nutrients (fertilizers) and plant protectants (pesticides) [6]. Plant protection products authorized for use in organic farming differ among countries depending on the differences in crops, pests, and cropping systems, as well as regulations and standards adopted by these countries [21]. Organically approved pesticides fall into the following groups: biorational, inorganics, botanicals, microbial, oils, and soaps.…”

Problems of implementing compulsory integrated pest management

“…In IPM, farmers are encouraged to use biological means of protection rather than chemical ones . There is, however, a shortage of plant protection products of biological origin available for use in the EU . Despite numerous promising results, the initiatives taken by the European Commission to promote the authorization of ‘low‐risk products’, as well as the fact that a number of biological products are currently under review for EU registration and it is not likely that this situation will change significantly any time soon .…”

Biological and chemical protection of melon crops against Myiopardalis pardalina Bigot

“…Due to the growing number of melon fly infestations and huge production losses, finding an effective method of protection is a priority. Attention is being paid to monitoring and using the chemical method, as an element of integrated pest management strategy, because there are no reports on the successful use of bio-control agents against the melon fruit fly (Nishida 1955), and there are limited reports concerning new insecticides (Singh et al 2000;Waseem et al 2009;Matyjaszczyk 2018).…”