“We have asked the Ministry of Health to extend the suspension of neonicotinoid and fipronil, used in the corn tanning in order to give the possibility to the Regions and other interested subjects to be involved in the process that will have to lead to a definite decision on the use of these active principals, that are harmful for the bees’ health.” This declared the Minister of agriculture, commenting the result of the meeting with the Consulting Commission for phytosanitary products, that was held yesterday in the Ministry of Health. During the meeting the results of the Apenet research program were analyzed.
The final report of Apenet, financed by the Ministry of agriculture and coordinated by the Council for the Research and experimentation in agriculture (Cra), has, in fact, evidenced a direct relation between the use of these active principals and the bees’ mortality, registered in some environmental conditions. Within the same project other items were tested such as: the effectiveness of the mitigation instruments of the dust dispersion phenomena during the corn seeding, the improvement of the seeds tanning techniques and the modification to do at seeding machines, used for the seeding of corn treated with neonicotinoids.
“We intend to continue the bees’ health monitoring, they are an important asset both for the productive aspect, that is relevant for the high quality and for the value of the Italian honey, but also because bees are a fundamental indicator for the health of our agriculture and of the agro-biodiversity. For this reason we have decided to reinforce – Minister Romano concluded – the monitoring network launched with the Apenet project, also thanks to the intervening of the Eu co-financing, assured by the program “Rete rurale nazionale””.