display
Ochsenfurt (dpa / lby) - With a column of around 350 tractors, farmers protested on Tuesday in Ochsenfurt against planned requirements for insect protection.
"We want environmental and nature protection on a voluntary basis - with us and not against us," said Claus Hochrein, chairman of the association "Agriculture connects Bavaria".
The association rejects the law on insect protection and the use of chemicals in the field submitted by Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) in its current form.
The protest was organized together with the Bavarian Farmers' Association and the Association of Franconian Sugar Beet Growers.
Farmers have been holding a vigil in front of the State Chancellery in Munich since Saturday.
Protest events also took place in other federal states on Tuesday.
The legislative package is to be decided on Wednesday in the Federal Cabinet in Berlin.
Affected farmers rate it as “excessive” and fear that livelihoods could be threatened: The planned ban on herbicides and insecticides in the protected FFH areas (fauna-flora-habitat) and other nature reserves restricts management.
The financial situation of some companies is tense anyway.
display
There was also pressure on Tuesday from the Bavarian Agriculture Minister Michaela Kaniber (CSU): "Voluntariness must also take precedence over regulatory law in the future."
And: "Let's not let ourselves be led through back doors into a bureaucratic monster that makes every plant protection measure in FFH areas subject to authorization."
Conservationists welcome the planned requirements.
"We urgently need a significant reduction in pesticides nationwide in order to stop the decline in species," said Norbert Schäffer, chairman of the state association for bird protection in Bavaria on Tuesday.
One is open to a common dialogue about constructive solutions for insect protection.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210209-99-367213 / 2
Letter from the German Farmers' Association to the Federal Chancellor