For healthy potatoes - Bayer CropScience

Agriculture, in all its forms, inevitably
means disruption of natural ecosystems.
What is therefore important is that a balance
is achieved between varied habitats
on the one hand, and agricultural use of
land on the other. This is certainly possible
– because high environmental standards
can be combined with productivity and
profitability in agricultural systems.
Extensive research efforts
These days, the development of a new crop
protection compound can take up to ten
years. Before any products can be marketed,
an extensive programme of research
and development work is done to demonstrate
the safety of the compound to people
and the environment. An application to
register a crop protection compound can
only be made once a catalogue of requirements
has been met. The requirements
themselves are continually being reviewed
and strengthened in order to ensure an ever
more comprehensive characterization of
the product. All of the studies done during
the research and development stage, and
the risk assessments based on them, are
collected together to create a safety profile
for the new crop protection compound.
Existing products – those that are already
on the market – must also be re-tested and
re-classified when the time comes for them
to be re-registered. Not all products are
able to satisfy the complete set of requirements,
and some fail to achieve regulatory
approval.
Among the required studies are tests
relating to the sensitivity of standard
species selected to represent the variety of
non-target organisms that are likely to be
exposed to the product in use, whether
present on the ground, in the soil, or in
water. These include algae, fish, water
fleas, plants, earthworms, mites, parasitic
wasps, bees, birds, and certain mammals,
such as mice.
However, tests done under laboratory
conditions are only part of the story. Under
the real environmental conditions of
nature, not all organisms are equally
exposed to crop protection compounds. If
laboratory tests indicate sensitivity in a
particular species, the product’s effects on
it must also be tested under the more complex
conditions of an intact ecosystem. For
example, in order to determine the safety
of the product to aquatic communities, differing
concentrations of test compound are
applied to small experimental water bodies
in so-called “mesocosm studies”: the
dynamics of the treated ecosystem are then
studied over a period of several months.
Agricultural practice determines that
only a proportion of the fields in a particular
area of land are being treated with a
particular crop protection compound at any
given time. Scientists assessing the environmental
compatibility of a product
therefore take into consideration both the
distribution of certain species (the proportion
of time spent in a treated field) and
their behaviour (for example the feeding
habits of wood mice and water voles, partridges,
larks or yellow wagtails). Socalled
„generic studies“ are done on areas
of land of between five and a hundred
hectares in size and containing a number of
crop types: they aim to establish which
species typically live within these agricultural
areas, and also to what extent they use
crops and orchards as sources of food.
These studies are sometimes run in parallel
in more than one country. Since they do
not involve the use of a particular crop protection
compound, their findings can be
applied to different products. Generic studies
indicate the typical level of exposure to
a product used in the agricultural landscape
in question. With the help of geographical
information systems and simulation
models, the results of smaller studies
can be extrapolated to cover larger agroecosystems.
Good agricultural practices
are key
The success of our highly-refined crop
production technologies depends on them
being used responsibly by the farmer.
Good agricultural practice and soil husbandry
are important factors. Bayer Crop-
Science contributes to sustainable agriculture
through its support for, and promotion
of Integrated Crop Management (ICM)
and Integrated Pest Management (IPM).
The idea behind ICM is to provide farmers
with a method for protecting the environment
within the economic framework they
operate under. By developing and using
ICM-Strategies tailored to local conditions,
it is possible to produce crops economically
and to protect biodiversity at the
same time – independent of geographical
location, the size of the farm, socio-economic
factors and technical standards.
2/06 COURIER 21