Asynchronous flowering or buffer zones: technical solutions for small-scale farming

Abstract

To ensure consumers' and farmers' freedom of choice, many countries have regulated the labelling of products derived from genetically modified (GM) crops and coexistence of conventional and GM fields. On the basis of published research results a guide for Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) was compiled to facilitate maize coexistence in farming zones with temperate climate. In the frame of the PRICE EU-funded research project we validated these recommended measures in real agricultural fields representing the worst case scenario, i.e. small-scale farming in a region with around 75 per cent commercial GM maize. The two alternative strategies proposed in the GAP, buffer zones and flowering asynchrony, successfully guaranteed coexistence in the frame of the present EU regulation. These measures do not lead to unnecessary costs, are simple to apply and are compatible with small deviations resulting from common agricultural practices. The results are applicable for temperate zones such as Southern Europe and cannot easily be transferred to other parts of Europe due to differences in climatic conditions which limit the use of different flowering times as a coexistence strategy