b'CONTENT FROM CORTEVA AGRISCIENCEHOW DID WE GET HERE?A RETROSPECTIVE ON THE EUROPEAN POLICY REGARDING NEONICST o anyone familiar with the EU process for approving GMOs, or new plant protection products, or the recent ban on neonics, will understand that European policy making has had a great, but not always positive impact on European agriculture and the seed sector. I witnessed the EU decision on the neonics, says Andre Negreiros, CortevaSINCE THE NEONIC BAN, EU Agriscience Seed Applied Technologies (SAT) Leader, EMEA, and I think this was a very controversial decision. The last fewFARMING HAS TURNED INTO A years, since the neonicotinoids ban on the main crops, weve seen a considerable change in the European way of farming.VERY CHALLENGING ACTIVITY. The sudden prohibition, without a proper selection of substituteIT HAS UNDERMINED FARMER products, has turned farming into a very challenging activity. It has undermined farmer competitiveness and fragilized the terri- COMPETITIVENESS AND FRAGILIZED tory food chain, says Negreiros. Looking forward, our industry must focus on R&D investments to develop solutions that bal- THE TERRITORY FOOD CHAIN.ance regulatory objectives and farmers needs to meet societal expectations of a safe, healthy and abundant food supply. This is Corteva Agrisciences main challenge and in the last few years we have been registering several seed applied technologies with a very promising profile, bringing more efficient solutions for the EU reality, he adds.the European seed treatment market has access already to new THE WAY FORWARD technologies, such as our new insecticide seed treatment, with Negreiros emphasizes that the best way forward for the industryexcellent effectiveness among the main pests and very safe for is to adjust itself on the new requirements delivering solutionsthe pollinator insects: an example that R&D can find seed-ap-responding to both consumers and farmers needs. Nowadays,plied solutions to substitute neonicotinoids, he adds.1802 1897 1906E.I. du Pont establishesElectrochemical pioneer H.H. DowDow produces its first the iconic companyfounds Dow Chemical Company, a agriculture product at a time that bears his name. one-product start-up that wouldwhen the value of U.S. farms rewrite history. had soared to $30 billion.32IEUROPEAN SEEDIEUROPEAN-SEED.COM'