Farmers may have to fork out more for pesticides

Farmers throughout Europe who risk damaging their soil quality by using pesticides in order to safeguard their crops may be forced to shell out more for the chemicals.

This is because American potato flea beetles are starting to spread across the continent, BBC Farming Today journalist Sarah Swadling has warned.

She said the pests have now gone from Portugal to Spain, which could pose a problem for UK agricultural workers, as Britain imports five per cent of its potatoes from the latter.

Potato flea beetles can cause total devastation to yields and Richard MacIntosh from the Food and Environment Research Agency suggested that a serious outbreak of the critters could cost farmers between £10 and £40 million a year.

Most of this added expense would be down to stores rejecting crops and the extra insecticides required to fight the fleas.

Many farmers in Europe saw their business affected by a recent outbreak of E coli in Germany, with a number of stores taking certain vegetables off their shelves for a period of time.

Posted by Claire Manning