A new agrochemical law in La Pampa would leave losses of almost $300,000 million

The Law 3288 on Comprehensive Pesticide Management promoted by the government of The Pampa since 2016 it would be about to be regulated and come into force, a situation that generates great concern and firm rejection in the agricultural community due to the high level of restrictions and demands it establishes, which would cause millionaire losses.

According to a study carried out by the La Pampa Agricultural Board and the Agr. Engineer. Alejandro Luz, specialist in satellite images, the implementation of this standard could cause a huge economic impact: considering the prohibition of application of phytosanitary products at 500 meters from the urban area of ​​the 44 agricultural localities of La Pampa, a billing loss of almost 53,000 million pesos.

To this must be added the prohibition of area application of pesticides at 3,000 meters from the edge of the ejido and on water spaces. “At first glance this would not represent a major inconvenience but by not precisely defining what “courses and bodies of water” are, it could be interpreted that it is a simple lagoon in the middle of a lot or a temporary lagoon or the puddle of drink. The problem is that the project was copied from other legislation where there are natural courses and lakes, but in our province and in the agricultural area par excellence that does not exist, therefore, this is subject to any interpretation,” explained the producer. president of the Rural Society of that district and delegate of the Argentine Rural Society, Federico Cobreros.

So, in a wet yearin Quemú Quemú, Only 5% of the surface would be free to cultivate without restrictions. total of that department, which is 225,000 hectares. “This law It’s crazy no matter how you look at it.“said the rural leader. The area with the application of phytosanitary products allowed in Realicó would be only 14% and that of Catriló 35%.

But if you take into account the application restriction to 3,000 meters of the urban area imposed by law, the situation is much more serious: The affected area in the 44 agricultural localities would reach 210,000 hectaresnot counting the restricted area of ​​water spaces. In this way, according to the study carried out by Luz, Billing losses due to reduced production would amount to $276,301,535,500.

“When we talk about application restrictions, we have to take into account that The main crop in the province is sunflower and aerial applications cannot be made, it becomes unviable, because at the end of the cycle, when it is attacked by pests, yes or yes you have to do aerial applications, there is no way to do it terrestrially“Cobreros explained.

Faced with this scenario, and after carefully analyzing the bill, the agricultural community of the province, grouped in the La Pampa Agricultural Roundtable, questioned each of the conflicting points and expressed a firm rejection of the implementation of the norm. which will imply enormous restrictions for the development of agricultural activity in that territory and, as they maintain, “will generate serious damage.”

The norm, promoted by Governor Sergio Ziliotto, It was approved in 2020 And since then, actors from different areas of agriculture have been working as part of an Advisory Council, so that modifications are made to the law. Now, alarmed at its imminent regulation and entry into force, they once again denounce that imposes enormous bureaucratic burdens, violates property rights, criminalizes agricultural production and, therefore, it will seriously affect all Pampas agricultural producers, but especially the smallest ones.

Trade union and technical entities of the sector gathered in the Agro Table provincial, such as Aapresid, the Association of Agricultural Professionals of La Pampa (APALP), Carbap (Rural Confederations of Buenos Aires and La Pampa), the Pampean Business Chamber of Agricultural Inputs, the Chamber of Owners of Agricultural Machinery of La Pampa (CAPROMA) , the Cereal Collectors Center, CREA, Agrarian Federation and Argentine Rural Society, They demanded the repeal of the norm and maintained that in the drafting of the law “the long and fruitful work carried out within the Provincial Plant Health Commission (COPROSAVE) for the updating of Law 1173 (the previous law that governed the activity) was not taken into account. ), a space in which representatives from public and private entities participated.

“It must be one of the laws most contrary to the provincial productive sector in memory“, expressed the Pampas producer Tomás Föhrig, from El Jagüel. “It prohibits ground fumigations 500 meters from the urban area and 3,000 in the case of aerial fumigations. The great political thinkers (?) forget to look scientific data showing that the maximum drift is 40 meters. And what are the other 2,960 for?” he questioned.

On the other hand, the law provides that authorized applications must be carried out in the presence of an agronomist. “It is as if a doctor prescribes a certain remedy for you and at 8 o’clock at night he rings the doorbell to see if you take the pill or not and he has to stay to see that you take it, it is impractical and above all things , is made, directly, so that the majority of producers, no matter how much we want to do things well, always have something we are missing,” said Cobreros.

Likewise, he questioned that the law requests 4 prescriptions for fumigation and 18 authorizations for the fumigator. “22 new kiosks, from the producer’s pocket to pay for someone’s party,” Föhrig shot.

Furthermore, the producer warned that the standard authorizes the Police to enter the fields without a court order. “If you put a lock on it, it gets worse. As if they were telling any of us to leave the house unlocked and that the police will come in freely, but rest assured, that everything is ok. It’s over. from ridiculous to insane“he said.

For Cobreros, the new law promoted by the La Pampa government “goes completely contrary to what is happening in the country, where it is being deregulated and they are trying to reduce the number of procedures.” The ruralista warned that the rule not only restricts production but also complicates it and makes it “very expensive.” “Going forward, possibly some companies will be encouraged to produce under these conditions, but common producers are very, very complicated to carry out all this paperwork, all these efforts, all these obligations and this tremendous overload, not only administrative, but also in terms of costs,” he lamented.

According to Fhörig, if this law is implemented, many of the producers will rent out their fields or leave them unproductive.

The sector is “strongly” opposed to the Pesticide Management Law and the regulations. “In addition to being crazy, It is unnecessary because in La Pampa, for at least ten years, good agricultural practices were established in the countryside, “All agricultural companies and all producers try to carry them forward, everyone is becoming aware of taking care of the environment and health, but also taking care of production, doing things correctly and applying very good technology,” Cobreros highlighted.

“We live in the countryside with our families, surrounded by agriculture, Nobody is thinking about doing something wrong with the environment because it is the place where we live.. Even in the towns, where others live, it is impossible to think that an agricultural producer is going to attack his own reality,” stressed the rural leader, whose great-great-grandfather settled there in 1907, a year before the railroad arrived.

“There are serious things that are beyond reasonI believe that at one point they understood it and that is why they did not regulate it for four years in which there were no problems with the applications. But having achieved their objective, it is very striking that today they return to the fray wanting to regulate what, clearly, is inapplicable or doing so would generate a tremendous economic disaster throughout the province,” said Cobreros.