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Submitted to: IUPAC-KSPS Workshop on Pesticide Regulation
Publication Type: Proceedings Publication Acceptance Date: 9/13/2003 Publication Date: 10/20/2003 Citation: Wauchope, R.D. 2003. Regulation of pesticide uses for minor crops: a cooperative global approach. Korean Society of Environmental Toxicology, IUPAC-KSPS Workshop on Pesticide Regulation. Seoul, Korea, Oct. 13-16, 2003. pp. 45-48. Interpretive Summary: Pest control chemicals are being produced by fewer companies with smaller profit margins. This is exacerbating the difficulties of getting registrations for small-acreage crops worldwide, with their combination of lower profit potential and added liability. This is a global issue. Plant diseases, weeds and insects can be just as devastating in these 'minor crops' as in major crops, and the economic value of these crops is comparable to that of major crops and often critical to a region. The IUPAC Environmental Chemistry Division project 'Pest Management for Small-Acreage Crops: a Cooperative Global Approach' is designed to bring countries together to share experiences and data, and to suggest harmonized registration approaches and modelling procedures which will help these specialty crops to survive. The approach is three fold: (1) compare minor-use procedures between countries; (2) propose harmonization and data-sharing approaches (3) 'Mine' available crop residue data for predictive model. The last objective may require a separate project with devoted manpower'at present this is an internet-driven project which is limited to gathering information provided by volunteers. This paper is a 6-page 'extended abstract', a progress report on this project for the Proceedings of a conference being held jointly by IUPAC and the Korean Society of Pesticide Science. Technical Abstract: The pesticide business has integrated both horizontally and vertically to produce a few global companies which are doing virtually all new pesticide development. As this business has matured and margins have decreased, new active ingredients are developed only for larger potential markets which will repay the development costs involved. Registration for 'minor' uses of pesticides'uses with smaller market potential and often disproportionally large liability because of high crop value'are not pursued or are being dropped by manufacturers. These are reasonable business decisions but such pesticide use registrations can be critical for producers of specialty and regional crops, whose need for state-of-the-art crop protection is no less than that of major-crop producers. These crops are often of much greater economic importance than their hectarage would suggest. For example, in the US, 'minor' crops are nearly half of total agricultural production in terms of dollar value. In response to this need a variety of innovative alternative institutional and scientific approaches have been developed, to obtain registrations for minor uses while staying within exposure limits for nontarget species, especially humans. This paper describes an ongoing information-gathering project of the IUPAC Chemistry and the Environment Division and its Advisory Committee on Crop Protection Chemistry. The Project is examining approaches taken in various countries by growers, agriculture ministries, and regulatory agencies, in cooperation with registrants, to fill this need, and explores some potential cooperative technical approaches which could have global utility. |
