§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the use of the controlled droplets application method of applying pesticides.
§ Mr. MacleanThis method of applying pesticides uses equipment which generates spray droplets by means, most commonly, of a spinning disc rather than by conventional hydraulic pressure spray nozzles. Britain has a good record of innovation in the important area of finding effective ways of delivering pesticide to the target. Practical equipment for applying sprays by rotary atomisers was substantially developed in the mid-1970s and a number of systems for generating spray droplets of a controlled size are now available to users. The Government welcome all the efforts which are being made by equipment manufacturers to minimise the amount of pesticide which needs to be sprayed and to make it easier for users to meet their obligations to avoid pesticide drifting into areas where it might harm people, creatures, plants or the environment in general.
§ Mr. Simon HughesTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what estimates he has in respect of the quantities of formulated pesticides sprayed on farmland in(a) 1970, (b) 1975, (c) 1980, (d) 1985 and (e) 1989; and what percentage for each year it is estimated was applied by (i) tractor, and (ii) aerial spraying.
§ Mr. MacleanEstimates based on pesticide usage surveys of farms and holdings in England and Wales are as follows:
Year Quantity of active ingredient of all pesticides applied by all methods (tonnes) Applied from the air (percentage by area treated) 1970 22,062 1— 1975 25,497 1— 1980 35,533 1.74 1985 34,124 1.80 1989 29,361 0.23 1 Not available.
§ Mr. DalyellTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement(a) on the progress of his expert working party on cereal control failure as a result of misapplied chemicals, (b) what studies his Department is sponsoring in relation to those genes which trigger toxin production and (c) what studies his Department is conducting on resistance to insecticides, in view of the 1990 explosion in aphid populations.
§ Mr. GummerI am not aware of the expert working party to which the hon. Member refers in part(a) of his question.
92WOn part (b), I assume that the hon. Member is referring to those genes which reduce Bacillus thuringiensis toxin. Although my Department is not providing funds directly to research on the insertion of genes into crop plants, it is financially supporting the work of the researchers (funded by the Department of Education and Science) to incorporate the more applied aspects of genetic improvement into their integrated research programmes.
On part (c), my Department is supporting extensive programmes of research into the genetics and biochemistry of pesticide resistance in cereal aphids, flies and other pests of growing and stored crops.