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Agriculture provides high quality, abundant food and a wide array of products which are biodegradable and renewable. Increasing agricultural productivity allows the world to produce more food, more fibre, more energy - sustainably.

Therefore, developing a regulatory framework that supports crop production is essential to every country. CropLife International believes the suggestions of the French government on pesticide usage and biotech crops will damage productivity and sustainable agriculture in France. These proposed actions stand to dramatically reduce the effectiveness and efficiency of French farmers by removing the very tools that help them produce more safe and nutritious food and fibre from the same hectares.

The responsible use of pesticides helps farmers increase crop productivity, improve quality and are an indispensable tool for the sustainable production of high quality food and fibre in France, and elsewhere around the world. Although often taken for granted, without these important products, food production would decline, many fruits and vegetables would be in short supply and prices would rise.

These valuable tools allow farmers to grow more per unit area, with less tillage, reducing pressures on forests and other uncultivated land, conserving natural resources and reducing soil erosion. Over the last 40 years, pesticides have proven to be indispensable tools in the sustainable production of high quality food and fibers. Since their introduction, farmers have been able to produce more crops on less land with crop productivity increasing up to 50 percent.

The suggestion of reducing pesticides while simultaneously proposing a moratorium on advanced biotechnologies that require fewer pesticides is not rational. Biotechnology has been used safely and successfully for more than a decade around the world to help deliver more grain for food, feed and fuel for consumers and farmers. In 2006, 10.3 million farmers in 22 countries cultivated genetically modified (biotech) crops on 102 million hectares. The adoption rate has seen double-digit annual growth since 1996.

A suspension of cultivation of biotech crops will greatly damage the competitiveness of French farmers who have benefited from this technology for the past 3 years. An exclusive CSA Institute survey for the French Maize growers shows that 52% of the French are in favour of using the cultivation of biotech crops to safeguard the competitiveness of French farmers.

This step backward comes at a time when the pressures on modern agriculture and farmers have never been greater to continue to produce enough grain for the growing food, feed and fuel needs around the world.

It is our sincere hope that French farmers will continue to have the freedom to choose those technologies that enable them to increase yields and deliver more grain for food, feed and fuel uses in their country.

CropLife International is the global federation representing the plant science industry. It supports a network of regional and national associations in 91 countries, and is led by companies such as BASF, Bayer CropScience, Dow AgroSciences, DuPont, FMC, Monsanto, Sumitomo and Syngenta. CropLife International promotes the benefits of crop protection and biotechnology products, their importance to sustainable agriculture and food production, and their responsible use through stewardship activities.

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