Aerial pesticide spraying is returning to France. On Wednesday, April 9, Parliament definitively adopted a bill aimed at "improving the treatment of diseases affecting plant crops using remotely piloted aircraft," opening the possibility of using drones to spray certain pesticides on specific crops.
The measure applies to steep plots with slopes greater than 20%, mother vine rootstocks and all banana plantations located mainly in Guadeloupe and Martinique, French overseas territories in the Caribbean. The legislation allows the use of aircraft only for biocontrol products (pheromones, microorganisms, etc.), substances permitted in organic farming and pesticides considered as "low risk" by European regulations. The bill was passed by a large majority in the Sénat, after being adopted at the end of January by the Assemblée Nationale, where most of the left voted against it.
In mainland France, the measure "mostly concerns certain vineyards, particularly in Beaujolais, Alsace or the Pyrénées-Orientales," explained Henri Cabanel, a Socialist lawmaker and the bill's rapporteur in the Sénat. "On steep terrain, manual application of treatments is arduous and dangerous," said Jean-Luc Fugit, an MP for the presidential party Renaissance and author of the bill. Fugit added that "using drones is safer, and studies by ANSES [the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety] have shown that operator exposure is reduced." According to Fugit, drones also make it possible to intervene more quickly on plots that are difficult to access and to reduce the quantities of substances sprayed.
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