AN emergency exemption for sugar beet growers to be able to use a neonicotinoid pesticide to help them grow the crop, has brought condemnation from the Soil Association.

Its head of farming policy, Gareth Morgan, said: “The government appears to have abandoned their own commitment to protect our pollinators and ignored scientific evidence. These pesticides are rightly banned in the EU and were banned here in the UK due to the harm they are proven to cause to bees – and the threat that poses to all our futures.

"These toxic chemicals simply have no place in sustainable farming, and agrochemical companies should not be manufacturing them or exporting them. Since ‘emergency’ exemption was granted last year, what has been done to find alternative solutions? How many years will bans of these harmful chemicals be overridden?

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"It is critical that we move forward and urgently support farmers to find a long-term, sustainable solution that does not threaten our endangered bee population and other wildlife. We must stop simply reaching for another toxic solution,” he said.

The authorisation was for the use of Syngenta’s Cruiser SB on sugar beet only and was for use in 2021 in England only. Conditions were attached to the emergency authorisation to ensure that, if the threshold for virus levels was reached and it became necessary to treat seeds, use of the product would be limited and controlled and any potential risks to pollinators mitigated to an acceptable level.

In particular, the application rate of the product will be below the normal commercial rate and no flowering crop was to be planted within 22 months of the sugar beet crop and no oilseed rape crop planted within 32 months.