The suppression of phytosanitary products and climatic adversities reduce onions and potatoes by 50%, Spain.
Fresh Onion
Diana Gomez
Published Apr 14, 2022
The Valencian Association of Farmers (AVA-ASAJA) denounces that the systematic suppression of active phytosanitary materials to combat pests and diseases by the European Union and the climatic adversities accumulated during the spring –persistent rains, arctic cold wave and winds of poniente– reduce by 50% the production pending harvest of onions and potatoes in the Valencian regions of L’Horta and La Ribera. The organization warns that this important collapse in harvests, together with the historical escalation in production costs, “sinks profitability and threatens to further reduce its surface area and even become the next two crops to disappear from the Valencian orchard “.
AVA-ASAJA criticizes that horticulturists are “defenseless and without solutions” to deal with fungi - mainly mildew in onions and alternaria in some potato plots - whose attacks have been favored by the climatic anomaly. Due to this year’s ban on Mancozeb and Dimetamorf, farmers have had to resort to “more expensive and less effective” alternatives; not surprisingly, there are farms that suffer production losses despite applying up to 14 applications since December.
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