September 2024
The long-awaited final report of the European Union’s Strategic Dialogue on the Future of Agriculture published on 4 September 2024, calls on the European Commission to proactively promote biocontrol from supporting R&D through accelerating procedures for bringing products to market and providing the training and context to support farmer adoption.
The section on biocontrol is found on pages 62-63 of the report and is reproduced below with our comments.
“Development and use of biocontrol: Biocontrol can be an alternative to conventional pest control and its application can help farmers reduce their pesticide use, in particular Integrated Pest Management. As conventional products keep disappearing from the market, and in response to the growing significance of biological control tools in agriculture and environmental management, it is recommended that the development, entry into the market, and application of biocontrol will be accelerated.”
Since 2017, farmers have lost one-third of their conventional plant protection products, but slow regulatory procedures and bottlenecks are preventing biocontrol products from coming to the market fast enough to fill the gap, let alone to expand the range of solutions available to farmers. Without these tools, EU crops are threatened by outbreaks of pests and diseases with potentially devastating effects on food security and industrial supply chains. There is also a greater risk of pests and diseases becoming resistant to the few remaining plant protection products, which would worsen the problem.
“To achieve this, the European Commission should, by 2025, enable a robust legislative framework for biocontrol products and approaches. This legislative framework should
Since it was created, the Biocontrol Coalition has been calling for the next Commission work program to include an item on developing a robust, dedicated regulatory framework for the approval of biocontrol products. We need a Single Market for biocontrol products to ensure that all EU farmers have access to a wide range of safe and effective biocontrol products at competitive prices and in a timely manner. The existing slow and fragmented approach to bringing biocontrol products to market is anti-competitive and reduces farmer choice and, ultimately, their ability to farm profitably and in line with consumer expectations. An important starting point for all this work is to adopt a harmonised definition of biocontrol that accommodates innovation.
Because biocontrol products draw on and influence the processes and interactions found in complex biological systems on farms, using biocontrol requires additional learning and adaptation from farmers. Therefore, collaboration is needed from R&D through farmer uptake to ensure that farmers have access to products suited to their local needs and know how to use them effectively.
The effectiveness of biocontrol products is not limited just to the direct effects they have on pests and diseases. It also extends to auxiliary positive effects such as increasing crop resilience and reducing unwanted secondary effects. Extending research support to understand the system benefits of using these innovations is welcome. However, investing in research without addressing the regulatory bottlenecks will only worsen the backlog of products waiting to be placed on the market.
Additionally, Member States should enhance their national administrative capacities and expertise to more efficiently and rapidly manage biological control dossiers and accelerate entry into market of safe and sustainable alternatives.”
Member State experts are involved in the registration of biocontrol active ingredients and the authorisation of products. However, in many cases, the same teams are working on both conventional plant protection products and biocontrol. However, evaluating biological products requires skills and knowledge that do not align completely with what is relevant for conventional products, so dedicated experts and training of existing experts are both needed. Furthermore, competent authorities need enough resources to be able to deal with all the applications in a timely manner. There are also opportunities for simplifying procedures and eliminating duplication in order to lower the overall workload while bringing more products to market faster.