Speaking at the recent CropLife conference, Dave West spoke of an entire pest control package, where farmers don’t just buy the chemicals, they buy the pest treatment as whole – and specialist operators do all the work.

He said it would reduce the risk of misapplication and strengthen the crop protection industry’s environmental credentials.

“I’m really surprised that none of the major players in your industry have looked at dematerialising the sale of pesticides, fungicides and herbicides,” he said.

He used an example in the paint industry, where DuPont stopped selling titanium oxide paint and started selling paint application services through paint outlets and automotive workshops in response to safety concerns in 1994.

“DuPont eliminated the risk, completely eliminated the community perception of the hazard and probably made a load of money out of the decision too,” he said.

“There are real grounds to consider the same value-added approach with farmers.

“Farmers don’t want chemicals – they want their pests gone.

“Instead of simply buying your chemicals, they buy the treatment on the property.”

Mr West said a dematerialised approach would involve calculating chemical loads, hiring professional contractors and operating monitoring regimes on behalf of the industry’s farmer customers.

“You get to secure a lot more of the supply chain and reduce the risks when it’s a large company with proven expertise making sure.

“In terms of product stewardship, green groups recognise that irresponsible chemical use isn’t really your problem, but the next step in their campaign against chemical trespass will be litigation and manufacturers are on their radar."

He said concepts such as the successful drumMUSTER program should be better sold to the public.

“It’s pretty obvious to me through the business I’ve done with drumMUSTER that you really should be proud of how far you’ve come, but your improvement isn’t clear to the public."