§ Lord Melchettasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they can confirm that initial experiments at the Ministry of Agriculture's farm at Boxworth, Cambridgeshire show that reduced levels of pesticides used have little effect on the yield and quality of the crops, and whether they will place the initial results of these experiments in the Library.
413WA
§ The Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Lord Belstead): We intend to publish within the next few weeks some initial results of experiments at my department's Experimental Husbandry Farm at Boxworth, Cambridgeshire to assess the environmental and economic effects of different levels of pesticide inputs in a farming system 414WA where winter wheat is the dominant crop. I will arrange for appropriate details to be placed in the Library of the House at the same time, but, based on the first three treatment years, reduced levels of pesticides have been shown to have significant effects on both yield and quality.