BCPC CONGRESS 2015 BRIGHTON: A REPORT ON THE TWO DAY MEETING ON EU CROP PRODUCTION REGULATION

摘要

The Congress focused on EU Crop Production Regulation. In the opening keynote address, Professor Tim Benton (Leeds University) referred to the Global Food Security Programme with Food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture a priority on the political agenda with more people and increasing global income demanding more food. This implies intensification of agricultural production by increasing output per unit area, and this has to be done in a sustainable way. Is that possible? Yields have been increased by plant breeding x energy x management, but "business as usual" is not a long-term option. To do so would require using 120% more water, 42% more cropland and losing 14% more forest and much of the world's biodiversity. He argued that the pesticide age is ending and we have to implement integrated pest management (IPM) with new ways of pest control. In addition, we will need to maintain ecosystems at a landscape scale, and meet societal needs and ethical values. He argued that smarter landscapes not just on individual farms, but throughout an agro-ecosystem are possible with some parcels of land producing higher yields alongside other areas with greater biodiversity. Pesticides will continue to have a role in IPM, applied in a more effective way, although we will see greater use of biopesticides and other techniques of pest management. In the future, instead of a "post-pesticide" era, we need to see an era with more responsible use of pesticides.