Cantonal Council SG St. Gallen cantonal council wants to stop reporting tool for agriculture

The majority of the St. Gallen cantonal council passed a state initiative on Tuesday. The aim is to stop the federal government from introducing an online reporting tool for plant protection products called Digiflux. The high cost is criticized.

In 2021, the Federal Parliament decided to introduce a notification requirement for the use of plant protection products. The requirement is part of a parliamentary initiative which, among other things, aims to at least halve the use of pesticides by 2027.

An online platform called Digiflux has been developed for implementation. In future, farms and garden centers would have to make an entry there if they use pesticides.

There is resistance to the introduction of Digiflux, which has already been postponed due to implementation problems. The FDP, Center-EPP and SVP parliamentary groups want to stop the platform with a state initiative. According to the initiative, it is "purely a control and monitoring instrument".

Record "parcel-specific"

In future, every application of a plant protection product would have to be reported in Digiflux on a "parcel-by-parcel and geo-referenced" basis. This would cause a massive administrative burden "as well as additional costs without ecological added value". The federal government should change the framework conditions so that "the intended use only has to be noted by the trade".

The SP and Greens argued against the initiative. They argued that Digiflux would trigger a digitalization push in agriculture. There was justified criticism of the implementation to date. But every cow is better documented today than dangerous pesticides. The petition was passed by 80 votes to 32 with one abstention.