Farmers rally against proposed EU conventional pesticides ban

Farmers on Monday morning are mobilising in protest against an EU proposal to drastically reduce the use of previously approved conventional pesticides.

The protest is expected to involve a large convoy of six hundred to eight hundred pickup trucks and about three hundred tractors, headed to the EU House via the Presidential Palace.

The farmers are asking for the government’s support to overturn the Commission’s proposal to ban the use of conventional pesticides in Natura areas and areas near rivers and dams, as well as in residential areas.

Speaking on CyBC’s morning programme, spokesman of Eka farmers’ association, Panikos Hambas, warned that if the Commission’s proposal is implemented, 79 per cent of Cyprus’ agricultural land will be lost and the country will become dependent on expensive imports for food.

“The concern is not one limited to Cypriot farmers,” Hambas said, noting that farmers are up in arms throughout Europe over various EU green deal proposals, following from the ‘Farm to Fork’ programme which farmers state are threating their very profession with extinction.

“They dressed it up nicely, to look like an environmental proposal,” Hambas said, who implied that the EU policies are tainted by greenwashing.

“This is particularly true of the countries in southern Europe and France,” Hambas said, claiming that economic interests in the “EU salons” are aiming to thrust the food production sector towards big corporate interests and genetically engineered foods.

Hambas claimed that, were the proposal to be implemented, Cyprus’ food sovereignty would be seriously compromised as huge areas of land would become prohibitively expensive for local farmers to farm, with one of several possible fallouts.

The proposal would either see the abandonment of these areas, such as Achna, the Marathasa valley, Solea, Amiandos, Platres and Paphos river valleys, or hugely inflated local food prices, or absolute dependence on imported food, Hambas said.

Biodiversity needs to be protected, however, this cannot be done simply by imposing heavy-handed rules on farmers, according to the farming association spokesman.

Panagrotikos spokesman, Kyriakos Kailas, speaking on the same programme, echoed concerns that the Commission’s proposal was unfeasibly strict, and warned that farmers will be forced to leave the profession.

“There is no alternative to conventional pesticides at the moment,” Kaillas told CyBC, noting that biological pest-control was far more expensive.

“The Mediterranean fruit fly, for example, can decimate production,” Kailas said. “If we are limited to using only biological products, as things currently stand, we will be priced out of the market by competitors from other countries, including third countries.”

According to Kailas, even some previously approved conventional biological pesticides would be banned under the EU’s latest proposals.

Kailas also brought up the issue of competition of products labelled as Cypriot from the north where there is no regulation whatsoever.

“There must be a limit, sudden and strict regulation is not the answer,” Kailas said, adding that farmers are the ones who understand how food is grown and how yields are kept up, and should have their voices heard.

EU Commission rep Athanasios Athanasiou, for his part, hastened to assure that the proposal was still entirely under negotiation and not a “take-it-or-leave-it” deal.

“Nothing is happening behind closed doors, there is no conspiracy at the EU level,” Athanasiou said.

The EU rep also noted that were the proposal to go ahead, following deliberation and voting, farmers would be covered during a five-year transitional period with EU subsidies.

“The discussion still needs to happen by the EU Council and Parliament, and citizens have multiple layers of access to EU decision-making,” Athanasiou maintained, adding that the EU would be taking into account differences in the needs of various states.

Police meanwhile have announced road closures in the capital ahead of the farmer’s protest, set to begin at 10.30am.

Demonstrators in their tractors will move along Spyros Kyprianou Avenue (from the area of ​​Jumbo Lakatameia, to the Orphanides traffic lights), where they will then join another batch of demonstrators and head down through Iosif Hadjiosif Avenue until they reach the intersection with Athalassa Avenue.

Afterwards, they will move along Athalassa Avenue, up to Strovolos Avenue and then follow the route to the presidential palace.

Then, from the traffic lights at the intersection of Demosthenes Severis and Grivas Dighenis avenues, they will pass in front of the ministry of finance, the Greek Embassy and end up on Byron Avenue in front of EU House.

During the gathering there, the avenue will be closed to traffic.