Bogota (AFP)

Colombia has suspended for six months the use of fipronil in certain agricultural crops, following the death of millions of bees because of this pesticide banned in Europe, but beekeepers consider this restriction insufficient in the face of the "massacre" of beehives.

The measure, taken in early March, "temporarily suspends the validation of pesticides containing fipronil and used for avocado, citrus, coffee and passion flower" which gives passion fruit, told AFP Sandra Molina, director of the agricultural inputs department at the Colombian Institute of Agriculture (ICA).

For their part, beekeepers believe that to stop "the massacre of bees", this chemical should be permanently withdrawn from the market, for all crops.

Already, farmers in southern Colombia have started to manually pollinate their fields due to the scarcity of bees, crucial for a third of the world's agricultural crops.

Since the end of 2020, AFP has received several denunciations from beekeepers who have lost hundreds of poisoned beehives, mainly in western Colombia, where coffee, citrus and avocado plantations abound.

They are not satisfied with the restriction: "This gives six months to exhaust the reserves. So if we do the count, there is no suspension," denounces Faber Sabogal, president of the Asoproabejas association.

- Four crops involved -

Ms. Molina defends the decision, claiming that beekeepers misinterpret the text.

Fipronil has been used in Colombia since 1993 and contained in some 60 agricultural products which, according to their registration with the ICA, can be used to treat more than 40 types of crops, from cotton to onions, including all four already cited.

According to the ICA official, the six months will allow manufacturers to indicate on products containing fipronil that they cannot be used for avocado, coffee, citrus and passionflower plantations, where the concentration is the highest bee mortality.

If after this deadline, expired on August 4, this was not specified on the label "we will cancel the registration for all uses," said Ms. Molina.

The measure therefore does not prevent the use of this pesticide for other crops.

Sabogal, who documented the poisoning of some 200,000 bees in March, says that as long as the product is on sale, it will be difficult to limit its use.

- Expensive manual pollination -

"The use is suspended only for certain crops, but a farmer can still buy fipronil for potatoes and apply it on others", underlines the beekeeper.

Ms. Molina argues that only four types of plantations are concerned because it is around them that bees die.

"We can't go any further until we have more elements," she said.

Between 2016 and 2020, around 64,000 swarms died from poisoning in Colombia, according to the ICA.

Each has about 50,000 bees, sometimes more.

Analyzes carried out in 42 of them showed that 73% contained traces of fipronil.

The use of this component was banned for corn and sunflower crops in 2013 by the European Union (EU), which then decided not to allow it for any crops.

In Colombia, the effects of bee death are already being felt.

Camilo Perdomo, a farmer in the department of Huila (south), told RCN radio that the scarcity of beehives forced him to recruit labor to pollinate his passion fruit plantations.

This tedious and expensive practice is already widespread in China, where fipronil was banned in 2020.

Beekeepers are calling for the pesticide "to be permanently suspended" in Colombia as well, says Sabogal.

The ICA pleads for patience: "We cannot take such a drastic measure as to completely suspend the product. There is a way forward (...) it may be that in the end, we discover that it must be totally suspended, as has been the case in other countries, "said Ms. Molina.

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