Horticulture and Potatoes Board member and Potato Forum Chairman, Alex Godfrey, explores the challenges growers face making sense of the variation around buffer zones, urging growers to stay on top of the all-important differences.
The proliferation of different zone widths makes sense if you’re applying for an approval: you go with the lowest available based on the data you have. For the CRD it’s a simple application of the precautionary principle; if any impact is noted on non-target species at up to 10m, then 10m it is for the buffer zone, regardless of how serious (if at all) that impact is. But for an individual grower or sprayer operator, the area is a minefield. And the mines move: just last month NIAB-TAG’s update reported on “a new pesticide buffer introduced, quietly in 2017” (for clomazone, though not all products yet have the new label).
The good news is that CRD have agreed to review their buffer zones this autumn. Of course, a review can go either way, but it does give us the opportunity to feed in our views and evidence from the farm. The review should reduce the complexity of the system, and ensure that any buffer zone which hits productivity, efficiency and profitability and carries the risk of severe cross compliance penalty is supported by a proper assessment of the impact.
Emma Hamer will be leading the NFU’s input into this review in the coming months, and welcomes any suggestions on how the regime can be improved.