EU: Less money spent on crop protection research

The amount of money being spent on research into crop protection has nosedived due to Europe’s ‘hostile’ regulatory environment, experts have claimed. A new study by agribusiness consultants Phillips McDougall found investment into research and development spend had fallen sharply from 33 per cent in the 1980s to just 16 per cent today.

As a result, the number of new active ingredients being developed and introduced in the EU is decreasing despite an increase in global expenditure on agricultural research and development.

The decline in Europe’s share of global research investment across the agricultural life sciences sector, including GM-related research, has dropped from 33 per cent in the 1980s to 7.7 per cent in 2013.

Crop Protection Association (CPA) chief executive Nick von Westenholz, said the withdrawal of research investment from Europe was a ‘straightforward commercial response’ to Europe’s challenging regulatory environment.

He said it deprived Europe’s farmers of new crop protection solutions which would help them meet the growing demand for healthy and affordable food.

Source: farmersguardian.com