How are we going to reduce the use of chemical pesticides by 50%? This was one of the questions discussed in the online debate on the Farm to Fork strategy organized today by Syngenta, which presented its Good Growth Plan 2.0, a plan of commitments for sustainable agriculture by 2025.
Two billion dollars is how much Syngenta is going to invest in sustainable agriculture under its new commitment plan until 2025, the Good Growth Plan 2.0. The company will also make two technologies available per year and develop specific commitments for Portugal and Spain, Felisbela Torres de Campos said today. The Head of Regulatory & Business Sustainability Portugal was speaking at a online debate promoted on 25/2/2021 by Syngenta, an associate of InnovPlantProtect (InPP), where the new Good Growth Plan of the company was presented and the European Farm to Fork (F2F) strategy was discussed.
Felisbela Campos explained to the InPP blog that the two technologies “can be used in various areas, such as new molecules, biopesticides, apps monitoring, digital tools, etc.” With regard to the specifics of Portugal and Spain, the company is “still developing local commitments, but the areas in which we already have concrete projects underway are biodiversity, soil conservation, carbon neutrality, and the safe and sustainable use of plant protection products”.
The head of Syngenta also stressed that the main objectives until 2025 are to accelerate innovation for agriculture and nature, working towards carbon-neutral agriculture. And that in the period relating to the first Good Growth Plan, between 2013 and 2020, there was an increase of 20% in crop productivity in Portugal and Spain.
In the debate, the various speakers said “yes” to F2F, which aims, among other things, to reduce the use of chemical pesticides by 50%, something that, in the words of José Diogo Albuquerque, CEO of the Agroportal, This worries farmers because of the risk of an increase in pests and a reduction in production.
Nuno Canada, president of INIAV, also a partner at InPP, recalled that the F2F “has tools to better manage the transition and adaptation” needed and that knowledge, innovation and science “make it possible to overcome” the challenges that lie ahead. He also argued that the European Commission “has created a set of financial instruments for this area, more robust than in the past, to innovate in agriculture and food” - instruments that the sector must be able to use.
The president of INIAV recalled that of the 26 collaborative laboratories that have been set up in Portugal, six are in the agri-food sector, which he considered to be very significant and exemplary of the improvements that have taken place in the national agricultural education and research ecosystem, as well as the “very significant journey” that has been made towards bringing the entities that produce knowledge closer to those that use and apply it.
For the director general of Office of Planning, Policy and General Administration, According to Eduardo Diniz, “the main debate is not about the objectives of the Green Deal [the European Green Deal that the F2F is part of], it's about being aware that they require the introduction of innovation and technology, which requires investment and income in the sector.”.
As for the use of biopesticides, Eduardo Diniz believes that there is still a long way to go, from the point of view of research and regulation, and that they will always be a complementary strategy in the fight against pests and diseases, not a total alternative. For his part, Nuno Canada mentioned the case of InPP, based at the INIAV center in Elvas, which aims precisely to develop biopesticides for crop protection and the post-harvest phase.
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