The Counsellor for Agriculture, Fishing, Water and Rural Development, Ramón Fernández-Pacheco, has demanded of the Government of Spain that it provide producers with "effective tools that are already used in other European countries" to tackle Thrips parvispinus, a pest that "puts the cultivation of pepper again on the line" in the provinces of Almería and Granada.
During a tour of a greenhouse in Berja (Almería), Fernández-Pacheco has expressed his "concern" about the advance of this insect, whose effects "are being more severe in this campaign in Almería".
"If between October and December of the previous campaign the 3.5 percent of the pepper-growing area affected had to be uprooted, by the end of October of this year the percentage had already reached six percent," he has detailed.
The Andalusian official has emphasized that in Almería nearly one million tons of pepper are obtained every year on some 13,500 hectares, which is why he has insisted on the need to act "as soon as possible" to prevent the damage from continuing to grow.
As he pointed out, the phytosanitary tools that are available at present, including the biological control protocols promoted by the Junta, are "insufficient" to contain this pest and, in his opinion, "the solution lies in the authorization of active substances".
At the instigation of the sector itself, the Department has sent again a few days ago to the Ministry of Agriculture the request for exceptional authorization for Spirotetramat, after the previous application was rejected on October 22 "despite the fact that this substance has been authorized in other European Union countries".
Likewise, a request has been submitted so that the use of Spinetoram is allowed, another phytosanitary product which, according to specialists, could help to control Thrips parvispinus.
The counsellor has expressed his displeasure at the lack, for now, of a response from the central executive and has recalled, referring to Socialist officials, that "there were those who announced publicly a week ago that the Ministry was working on the authorization of an active substance, specifically sulfoxaflor," and that "there would be news in the coming days".
Regarding this phytosanitary product, Fernández-Pacheco has highlighted that, according to what experts tell him, "it is already authorized for other pests and can be used in pepper cultivation without the need for exceptional authorization".
"Farmers need solutions, need tools, and need them as soon as possible. The Government has to rise to the seriousness of this situation and listen to those who are suffering its consequences," he has reiterated.