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Pesticide management

News on pesticide damage
Pesticides are commonly used in agriculture around the world, and the strategies used to mitigate them have long focused on air and water resources. A new study warns that pesticides are actually causing significant damage to soils around the world and that environmental agencies should take immediate steps to protect the ecological health of soils.
The study, a collaboration between the non-profit Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth and the University of Maryland, provides one of the most comprehensive analyses of the impact of pesticides on soils.
The study synthesised the results of nearly 400 previously published studies, including more than 2,800 experimental data, and considered the effects of 284 pesticides or mixtures of pesticides on 275 organisms in the soil.

The analysis showed that more than 70% of these experiments found that the pesticides caused harm to the biota in the soil,such as earthworms, springtails, beetles and thousands of other organisms in the soil, who are vital to the health of the ecosystem and the use of pesticides is seriously threatening their safety.

Lead researchers Nathan Donley and Tari Gunstone said that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) now approves the use of nearly 850 pesticides. The EPA has publicly acknowledged that 50 to 100 percent of pesticides end up in the soil.

However, as an assessment of pesticide damage to species within the soil, the EPA uses only one species – the European honey bee – which is a creature that lives its entire life in the ground environment. Using this organism as a proxy to assess the effects of pesticides on organisms within the soil is maybe the inappropriate approach.

Donley and Ganston issued a call for the US Environmental Protection Agency to immediately initiate a re-evaluation of pesticide products. They said: “Soil is an important component of the Earth’s ecosystem, and nearly a quarter of all life on this planet lives in it. Protecting soil health should be a priority, not something to be remedied in the future.

News Resource: http://www.huanbao-world.com

Current status and trends in international pesticide management

After reading that kind of news, I decided to explore more information on pesticide management to see if there exist some effective measures to protect soil environment.

By researching, I found some rules on international pesticide management. Responding to climate change and promoting eco-agriculture are new issues in agricultural development, and new requirements are being placed on pesticide management. At the same time, new pesticide products and applications are emerging, making pesticide management even more challenging in order to meet these changes and requirements. Under this background, the United Nations has set the goal of sustainable development by 2030 and the FAO has proposed a strategy for sustainable agricultural development. International Chemicals Management (SAICM) has also placed greater demands on chemicals management: strengthening environmental protection, preserving biodiversity, promoting ecological agriculture and improving food safety.

  1. Current status of global pesticide use

Since the last century, the world’s population has entered a phase of rapid growth, from 1.5 billion in 1900 to 6.1 billion in 2000, a growth rate four times the average growth rate of the entire human history. According to the United Nations World Population Projections 2015 report, the world population will reach 8.5 billion, 9.7 billion and 11.2 billion by 2030, 2050 and 2100 respectively. The growth in world population requires a parallel increase in food production, which also brings a parallel increase in pesticide use. According to data published by FAO, world pesticide use increased several times more.

With the widespread use of pesticides, especially chemical pesticides, posing a significant risk to human health and the environment, the World Health Organization (WHO) has also reported that 3 million pesticide poisonings occur globally each year, resulting in 250,000 deaths. Experts said that the use of pesticides may even cause cancer, especially affect reproductive development and the nervous and endocrine systems of humans. In addition, according to current statistics, there are large amount of pesticides sprayed enter the environment, polluting aquatic systems, harming fisheries and aquaculture, or entering the soil, reducing soil quality, contaminating groundwater, damaging biodiversity and causing damage to ecosystem health. A study from North America found that 121 different pesticides and metabolites were detected in over 800 samples of honey bee species from 23 states in the USA.

The excessive use of pesticides undoubtedly poses a risk to human health and the ecological environment, affects the sustainable development of agriculture and hinders the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Strategy. Therefore, strengthening pesticide management and reducing the safety risks to humans and the environment has become an important goal and direction for international pesticide management. At the same time, strengthening regional and international cooperation has become a great trend in pesticide management.

  1. measures of global pesticide management
  2. Broad participation of international organisations and institutions.

The Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals (IOMC) is a cooperative agreement on chemicals management reached among relevant UN agencies to implement the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM). Its members include FAO, OECD, UN Environment, UNIDO, UNITAR, World Bank and UNDP. Pesticide management is an important part of IOMC’s work. The main international organisations and agencies involved in global pesticide management are FAO, WHO, UNEP and OECD, each of which has its own focus and works together to help national pesticide authorities manage pesticides globally.

 

  1. Numerous regional organizations based on mutual recognition of information and trade.

With the increasing globalisation of pesticide production and trade in agricultural products, and with the aim of saving social resources, improving regulatory efficiency and reducing market access costs, international organisations, for example, the FAO promoted a trend towards inter-regional harmonisation of pesticide management worldwide.

  • North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

The NAFTA Pesticide Technical Working Group (TWG) was to act as a focal point for addressing pesticide issues arising in the context of free trade in the North American Free Trade Area, which aims to promote lower pesticide management costs and facilitate trade patterns between the three countries through coordination and work sharing. Areas of cooperation include: information sharing, harmonisation of data requirements, cooperation in risk assessment, joint reviews, joint development of pesticide-related NAFTA standards, etc.

  • West African Committee on Pesticide Registration (WACPR)

WACPR members include more than 10 West African countries and their Resolution 436/1998 issued by the Andean Community established harmonized procedures for the management and registration of agrochemicals in the region and created a common regulation for pesticide registration within member countries, requiring all pesticides entering the region to be evaluated by a centralized expert committee. This committee brings together the scarce resources of experts from member countries and has greatly reduced the shortage of registration resources in Africa through mutual recognition and harmonisation of registration policies and information.

  • Caribbean Coordinating Group of Pesticide Management Committees (CGPC)

CGPC is part of a strategy to improve the use and management of agrochemicals in that region and is made up of representatives of pesticide authorities from Caribbean countries to improve regional coordination, communication and action on pesticide management issues, call for a harmonised legal framework for pesticides, including registration and inspection, and take concerted action on the reduction of highly toxic pesticides.

  • Joint Registration Mechanism of the Andean Community (ANDEAN)

Prior to 2000, pesticide registration in the Andean countries was fragmented, but in 1998, with technical support from FAO, a law on the registration of chemical pesticides for agricultural use in the Andean region was approved after several years of consultation, and in 2002 harmonised technical guideline was issued. In the following years, member countries legislated to support the national implementation of this pesticide registration law.

 

  • Southern African Pesticide Registration Forum (SAPReF)

The Forum aims to promote cooperation among SADC member countries in the areas of pesticide risk management and post-registration regulation of pesticides, as well as to facilitate regional information exchange, harmonize pesticide registration procedures between countries, and establish a single regional mechanism for the assessment and registration of pesticides to better strengthen regional pesticide use and trade management.

  • East African Community (EAC)

The EAC wanted to develop harmonised technical guidelines for pesticide management in order to control African stickleback more effectively while reducing management costs and duplication of trials, reducing the risks posed by pesticide use and protecting the environment and human health. As the region relied on imports for most of its pesticides, the lack of a coordinated pesticide registration policy could lead to the increased imports of counterfeit products, further posing a risk to food safety in the region.

  • Pacific Regional Registration System (PRPRS)

The Pacific Regional Registration System (PRPRS) was established in May 2015 through the joint efforts of 12 Pacific Island countries and FAO, as the main platform for harmonising pesticide registration and use in the region. The system is designed to provide technical support for national pesticide registration decisions, build capacity in member countries, determine the scope of licensed products and uses, and strengthen the regulation of product quality, use, labelling, packaging and pesticide advertising. It also shares evaluation experts and supports information exchange.

All in all, relying on traditional pesticides could not be the best choice if organization would like to pay more attention on environmental protection, the food we eat, the air we breathe, all health depends on a good ecological environment. And as far as I know, China has always developing to use the new green pesticides, and some new green pesticides among them even go international. More and more countries nowadays seek or bring more technological solutions to crop protection for the benefit of global agriculture.

By Sherry Song Dhu

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