RI CS LAND

JO UR NAL

O P INIO N

Rob Yorke offers his view on how to

release tension between the agricultural
benefits of some modern pesticides
and their environmental impacts

Pesticides
versus
pollinators

T
The European Union has
temporarily banned the
use of some neonicotinoid
chemicals on flowering crops,
such as oil seed rape (OSR),
because of fears over their
effect on pollinators. The UK
government has accepted the
ban but disputes the science
behind it.
There is no argument
that insecticides such as
neonicotinoids and pyrethoids,
kill insects. They are designed
to do so in different ways, with
differing efficiency and doses.
Agricultural ecosystems,
which cover 75% of the UK
countryside, have been highly
manipulated and are full of
hard choice trade-offs and
unexpected consequences.
In the future, there is every
chance that climate change

may increase crop damage

directly from insects and the
viruses spread by them.
Insecticides have come
a long way from the days
of Rachel Carsons 1962
book Silent spring, which
documented the detrimental
effect of pesticides on the
environment. Since then,
the indiscriminate use of
synthetic agro-chemicals
has been replaced by the
application of more complex
compounds involving precise
application during optimum
weather conditions, which, in
theory, reduces the negative
impact on the environment to
a minimum.
Neonicotinoids, currently
the most common type of
insecticide, are applied as a
water soluble seed dressing,
which is systemically taken
up by the plant within its
vascular system. However,
the efficiency of absorption
by the plant the active
chemical appears in pollen and
nectar of flowers has been
offset by concern about its
possible persistence within the
environment and organisms
(bio-accumulation).
Could the ban have
unexpected consequences for

Image Andrew Mills, Natural England

pollinators? Some argue that

heavier doses of less effective
pesticides may affect a wider
range and number of nontarget insects. Farmers may
also decide to reduce the area
of OSR grown, which, in turn,
removes valuable foraging to
managed honey bees and
some wild pollinators.
By banning insecticides,
are we sidestepping a greater
cause of pollinator decline
habitat loss?
Even allowing for the
attraction of mass flowering
crops such as OSR, the
reduction in habitat reduces
options for pollinators not
just bees, but also flies
and hoverflies to forage
anywhere other than within
chemically treated crops.
This, potentially, has chronic
effects on the health of
pollinators vital to both wild
flowers and crops.

Refuges
One answer could be the
planting of specific habitat
(referred to as refuges) as
part of granting licences to use
certain insecticides. Enforcing
the sowing and maintenance
of pollinator-attractive wild
flowers or grasses close to
the treated crop creates, in
effect, spare land for efficient
agro-chemical treated food
production, while sharing the
less-treated refuge habitat
with biodiversity.
The refuge habitat itself
might not be without hazard.
Research on the persistence of
neonicotinoids demonstrates
that they may move laterally in
the soil and although at lower

concentrations, might
be taken up by flowering plants
in untreated habitats.
However, we may have to
accept that the modern
countryside is a hazardous
place, especially if a new
generation of insecticides ends
up replacing neonicotinoids
The fact is that the risk to
pollinators must be reduced
as much as possible to below
sub-lethal levels and the
advantages of the provision
of refuges outweigh the risks
of establishing them. In some
circumstances pesticides
have allowed habitats to
survive. For example, Natural
England sanctioned use of
glyphosate to enable one of
Englands largest areas of wild
cornflowers to bloom.
Some might believe that
the word refuges implies guilt
that insecticides are harmful
to the environment. But it
must be braver for us to
seek to improve, champion
and challenge better
practices that enable us
to farm more effectively
and efficiently while also
respecting nature by giving
it more chances to thrive
alongside our own needs. C

More information
This is an edited version of
Rob Yorkes opinion piece for
www.farmingfutures.org.uk
Farming Futures blogs
information and opinions
to help farmers and land
managers make strategic
decisions about the future
shape of their businesses
Twitter.com/FarmingFutures

Rob Yorke FRICS is a Rural Chartered Surveyor and commentator

ry@robyorke.plus.com, twitter.com/blackgull

Related competencies include

Agriculture, Management of the
natural environment and landscape

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