Agrochemicals

Farmers want to produce healthy crops with good yields and sell them at a fair price so that they make a profit and can continue in business.  Farmers will normally use some chemicals to help them achieve this.  The most common are:

• Fertilisers (usually a combination of N, P and K) to make sure that crops have the nutrients needed for a good yield.
• Herbicides (weedkiller) to help reduce competition for resources so that the crop thrives.
• Fungicides, which help to protect crops from attack by disease such as mildew and fusarium, which can both damage the crop quality and reduce the yield.
• Pesticides may be used if crops are attacked by slugs or insects such as aphids.  However, these tend to be used only when there is a risk of major attack. 

Collectively these products are known as agrochemicals, and they play a very important part in ensuring that crops are available of the correct quality and in sufficient quantity for millers, bakers and consumers. 

Flour millers only purchase crops from growers who participate in farm assurance schemes such as the UK Red Tractor Scheme, meaning that they are subject to independent inspection to check that they are using these products correctly.  For many years the industry has run checks on the level of agrochemical residues in grain and found them to be either absent or well below maximum permitted levels.  The UK government undertakes its own monitoring of grain products and has found similar results.