The Dutch government believes that precision farming and innovative breeding should replace the use of pesticides.

The Dutch government for agriculture has developed a new concept for plant protection, designed to protect natural resources and reduce the environmental impact of agriculture.

Agriculture Minister Carola Schouten said the vision is a “paradigm shift”: “Pesticides are important to ensure good, quality production. Nevertheless, at present the dependence on pesticides is such that we need a radical turn ... where pesticides remain necessary, their use should be “reasonable” in order to minimize emissions into the environment and ensure crop production with virtually no residues ” .

The concept recommends replacing the use of pesticides with new selection methods in which plants are genetically modified to improve drought tolerance and pest resistance.

She also suggests making better use of precision farming, which uses satellite technology to monitor, measure and respond to crop variability in the field.