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Farming Today: 12/01/21 Emergency sugar beet pesticides, Indian farmer protests

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12/01/21 Emergency sugar beet pesticides, Indian farmer protests

BBC Radio 4 - Farming Today, 12/01/21 Emergency sugar beet pesticides, Indian farmer protests

The government explains why it will now allow farmers to use neonicotinoids on sugar beet.

Conservationists angry with a Government decision to allow sugar beet growers to use a neonicotinoid pesticide which has been banned across the EU have written to the Environment Secretary George Eustice urging him to reverse the decision. The Pesticide Action Network UK says the move will harm wildlife without actually providing an exit strategy from reliance on banned pesticides for sugar beet farmers. The farming minister Victoria Prentis tells us she believes it was the right decision to make in an emergency. 

And all this week we are looking at farming news from around the world. We hear the latest from India, where farming has been in turmoil for some months, since the Government passed three laws which attempt to change the current market system. Smaller farmers say the change will put them at a disadvantage, and are refusing to end protests there which have been on going for more than a month.

Presented by Anna Hill
Produced in Bristol by Natalie Donovan

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