Effective from January 6th this year, the European Crop Protection Association will operate as CropLife Europe, expanding its mandate to include digital and precision farming, plant biotech innovation and biopesticides alongside conventional pesticides.
The launch of CropLife Europe comes as EU policymakers and governments are increasingly calling on the agri-food system to transition to a more sustainable model.
Géraldine Kutas, CropLife Europe Director-General stated that they believe this would be the best achieved through a holistic approach, so an agile association representing a host of technologies under one roof will be better equipped to represent the integrated solutions needed to deliver sustainable agriculture and respond to the rapidly changing demands from society and evolving policy frameworks. Producing enough food sustainably cannot be achieved by simply reducing the availability of solutions to farmers. Instead we need to accelerate the development of new, better solutions and enhanced farming practices that utilize more technology to produce our food while using less resource.
To this end, CropLife Europe’s members will continue to invest in research and development, expanding its focus on innovation to support the production of food for all in a fair and sustainable way.
Livio Tedeschi (BASF), CropLife Europe’s newly appointed chairman of the association stated the European Commission’s Green Deal is a real game changer. Together with the EU Farm to Fork Strategy and the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, it provides us all with a great opportunity to deliver more sustainable agriculture; to ensure that the EU supports the delivery of the UN Sustainable Development Goals; and to further strengthen food security not only in Europe, but globally. Their industry to be part of the solution that will help deliver the EU Green Deal. We will play our part and hope that other stakeholders will join us in driving these crucial topics forward.
The expanded CropLife Europe organization will encompass a wider range of topics including:
-
Pesticides and biopesticides used in organic, conservation (low till, no till), agroforestry and conventional agriculture models;
-
Precision and digital applications which enable delivery of the minimum amount of product, at the right place, at the right time
-
Plant biotech traits that will enable crops to thrive in difficult conditions using less resources or provide greater benefit in people’s diets.
