The Great Suffering of Farmers
Fire blight, Japanese beetle, or flavescence dorée—farmers in Valais, too, are increasingly feeling helpless in the face of the threats nature presents. Above all, they are increasingly lacking the effective tools needed to protect their crops. This makes it all the more important that the responsible Federal Councillor adopt a pragmatic balancing of interests when authorizing plant protection products.
Thursday, February 26, 2026
In an article in 24 Heures, Georg Bregy, Deputy Head of the Agricultural Service of the Canton of Valais, states clearly: “Pressure from pests is increasing, and uncertainties are considerable. We lack the resources to combat them.”
Helpless in the Fight Against Devastating Diseases
One farmer who has lost such a battle is Joël Bessard. On his property in the Charrat (VS) region, several pear trees were infected with fire blight—a highly contagious disease that affects trees and plants, causing their blossoms to wither. The diagnosis was made on a Friday. The consequence followed immediately: by Monday, the trees had to be cut down. The Bessard case is just one of many examples illustrating how difficult it has become for farmers to protect their crops.
Yet solutions exist: after years of research and under strict regulations, scientists at ETH Zurich and Agroscope have bred apple trees resistant to fire blight. However, Switzerland has maintained a ban on genetic engineering for 20 years. Apple breeders have therefore long advocated lifting the ban, also to better combat fire blight.
The current situation is delicate, Bregy emphasizes: in addition to fire blight, flavescence dorée is causing devastating damage in vineyards. By 2025, the affected area has increased by almost 38 percent, now covering 1,320 hectares or around 15,000 plots. The disease is transmitted by a leafhopper, and insecticides are used to combat it—even in organic farming. The product applied is pyrethrin, a sister substance to the synthetically produced and often criticized pyrethroids, extracted from chrysanthemums grown in monocultures.
The Japanese Beetle Threatens More Than Football Pitches
Diseases are not the only danger lurking in the fields. Increasingly, farmers are also concerned about animal pests, such as the Japanese beetle. It attacks not only vines and fruit trees, but also berry crops, corn, soybeans, and around 400 other plant species. According to Agroscope, this pest could in the future cause crop losses amounting to several dozen or even several hundred million Swiss francs, as reported by 24 Heures.
And the problem is likely to worsen: increasingly mild winters are exacerbating the situation. According to Danilo Bächler, Head of Plant Protection at the Wallierhof Training Center, warmer temperatures allow more insect generations to hatch each year. The risk of invasive species and insect-transmitted plant diseases is also rising, as reported by Schweiz am Wochenende. Without extended frost periods, infestations can begin earlier.
A Careful Balancing of Interests Between Food Production and Environmental Protection Is Essential
These developments are not good news for farmers—especially as fewer and fewer effective countermeasures are available to them. It is therefore crucial that the responsible authorities pursue a pragmatic approach that takes into account the realities of agricultural operations. Recently, four plant protection products were provisionally not assigned specific maximum residue limits because farmers simply lack effective alternatives.
Ultimately, there is no way around a careful balancing of interests that considers all parties involved—as the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC) also noted in response to criticism of Federal Councillor Rösti’s approach. This balancing includes scientific, practical, and political considerations. It is in the interest of farmers—but also in the interest of all those who, for example, call for locally produced rapeseed instead of palm oil.
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