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 The new rules set out by ANSES are part of a push by the French
government to phase out glyphosate by 2021 and reflects a global
debate about the safety of glyphosate, first developed by Bayer's
Monsanto unit under the brand Roundup.
The product has been under fire since a World Health Organisation
agency concluded in 2015 that it probably causes cancer, an
assessment rejected by other scientific bodies and by Bayer, which
has faced a series of U.S. lawsuits.
French President Emmanuel Macron in 2017 pledged to end glyphosate
use in France within three years, but his government later said it
would take into account whether other solutions existed.
In a decision on the main farming and forestry uses of glyphosate,
regulator ANSES said the weedkiller would no longer be used in
alleys between vines and fruit trees, or in crop fields that are
ploughed.
Glyphosate would still be allowed under vines and trees where
mechanical weeding was impractical or costly, and would also be
permitted on crop farms that avoid ploughing to preserve soil
fertility, ANSES said in a statement.
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But the maximum amount of glyphosate authorised per year would be reduced by 60%
for orchards and crop fields, and 80% for vineyards, it said.
The stricter conditions are to apply within six months for glyphosate products
re-approved by ANSES, it added.
ANSES has already withdrawn dozens of glyphosate-based weedkillers from the
market in recent years.
Macron's government has also been wrestling with the use of pesticides known as
neonicotinoids, seen as a risk to honeybees.
Faced with insect damage to sugar beet, the government is proposing an exemption
for sugar crops from a ban on neoniconoids.
(Reporting by Gus Trompiz; editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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