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FAO, in close collaboration with the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment (MOCCAE) of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), organized a workshop on pesticide evaluation and registration. The meeting was organized in Dubai from 14 – 18 October 2018 and brought together 16 participants from different emirates and technical backgrounds. Participants were introduced in the different modules of the FAO Pesticide Registration Toolkit, practiced its navigation and discussed its use in day-to-day regulatory work. Since the UAE imports most of its food, food safety aspects of imported agricultural commodities received special attention during the workshop. Establishment of maximum residue limits and methods for dietary risk assessment were discussed in detail and options to protect food safety in the UAE were reviewed.

FAO organised a regional meeting for registrars from Europe and Central Asia with the purpose to strengthen their existing regulatory capacity and promote cooperation between the countries. The workshop was held in Chisinau, Moldava, from 25 - 28 September and consisted of presentations about the work that FAO is doing in this field, a presentation about the Pesticide Registration Toolkit, presentations by individual countries about their registration systems and several group discussions to investigate the possibilities for future support and cooperation on pesticide registration and related issues. The main invitees to the meeting were representatives of registration authorities of eight countries that fall under the mandate of FAO-REU:  Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan

Pesticide regulators from departments of agriculture and public health in Thailand met in Bangkok for a workshop on the FAO Pesticide Registration Toolkit. They were joined by regulators from Cambodia and Lao PDR. In total 25 technical staff discussed different aspects of pesticide registration, such as decision making, data requirements, assessment methods and risk mitigation. They were trained on the navigation and use of the Toolkit and reviewed how best to apply this tool in national registration of agricultural, domestic and public health pesticides. Specific attention was given in the workshop to highly hazardous pesticides (HHPs), which included technical support for the identification and assessment of HHPs as well as development of mitigation measures to reduce risks associated with such pesticides. This workshop aimed at strengthening pesticide regulatory management capacity within Thailand, Cambodia and Lao PDR and enhance regional collaboration and information exchange between pesticide regulatory authorities. It was organized in a collaboration between FAO and the Swedish Chemical Agency (KEMI) and hosted by the Department of Agriculture of the Royal Thai Government.

Nineteen staff involved in the authorization of pesticides from Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay met from 7 – 11 May 2018 in Montevideo (Uruguay) to discuss the implementation of the Rotterdam Convention and get acquainted with the FAO Pesticide Registration Toolkit. The participants reviewed the benefits and obligations of the Rotterdam Convention as well as ways in which MERCOSUR member countries can collaborate to strengthen pesticide management in the region. Furthermore, the participants were informed about the contents of FAO Pesticide Registration Toolkit, and how this new tool can assist pesticide registration authorities to take informed decisions about the pesticides they authorize for use in their respective countries. The various modules of the Toolkit were presented and their navigation and use were practiced. The importance of sound decision making for pesticide registration was discussed, in particular given the need to protect human health and biodiversity while ensuring sustainable intensification of agricultural production in the region. This workshop was organized jointly by FAO and the Rotterdam Convention.

Pesticide regulatory authorities from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia met in Tunis, from 12 – 16 March 2018, to discuss the implementation of the Rotterdam Convention and the FAO Pesticide Registration Toolkit. The workshop was attended by 20 experts, members of the national pesticide registration committees and of their technical secretariats as well as Designated National Authorities of the Rotterdam Convention. Participants were initiated in the navigation and use of FAO Pesticide Registration Toolkit and discussed how the various modules of the Toolkit could support national pesticide evaluation and authorization. Particular attention was given to ways in which the Toolkit could complement and strengthen the existing national pesticide registration procedures.The meeting also discussed implementation of the Rotterdam Convention, notably the elaboration of notifications of final regulatory actions to ban or severely restrict a pesticide, and the associated risk evaluations. The meeting was primarily funded by the Rotterdam Convention and was organized by its secretariat in collaboration with FAO Subregional Office for North Africa.  

Fourteen staff of the pesticide registration authorities of Cameroon, including two members of the Interstate Committee of Pesticides in Central Africa, gathered in the city of Edea in Cameroon, from 11 – 15 December 2017, to participate in a training on the FAO Pesticide Registration Toolkit. The FAO Toolkit is designed to assist pesticide registrars from developing countries in the day-to-day pesticide registration tasks, including risk assessment. It facilitates finding data requirements, evaluating human and environmental risks, and determining risk mitigation measures. The training was organised by FAO and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Cameroon, under the project Disposal of existing POPs and other obsolete pesticides and implementation of a sound pest and pesticide management in Cameroon funded by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF). The participants included staff of the Cameroon National Commission in charge of Pesticide Registration and Certification of Application Equipment (CNHPCAT), staff of the Department of Regulation and Quality Control of Agricultural Products and Inputs (DRCQ) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and staff of the Interstate Committee of Pesticides in Central Africa (CPAC). The key role of these organisations is to ensure that pesticides authorised for use in Cameroon and in the region do not pose unacceptable risks to human health.

A National workshop on the application of the FAO Pesticide Registration Toolkit was held in Gaborone, Botswana, December 10-15, 2017. Around 25 participants from different departments participated in the workshop hosted by the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security. This workshop was organized under the framework of GEFF project GCP/BOT/011/GFF – Component 2, "strengthening the pesticide regulatory capacity in Botswana" and aimed to strengthen pesticide regulatory management capacity and coordination between the different departments involved within Botswana. In addition, attention was given to the implementation of the Rotterdam Convention by the Botswana registrars.

A five day regional workshop on the FAO Pesticide Registration Toolkit was organized in Hanoi, Vietnam, October 16-20, 2017.Pesticide registrars from three countries, Lao PDR (2), Thailand (3) and Vietnam (17) participated in the training workshop, which was hosted by the Plant Protection Department of Vietnam. The participants were introduced to the Toolkit through presentations and practical exercises and shared experiences with their colleagues from the other participating countries. All participants expressed positive views of the training and the toolkit and the foresee the use of various modules to support future review of pesticide applications and decision making. Information sources, data requirements and the registration strategy “Registration by analogy” was considered particularly useful. The workshop was organized within the framework of the regional programme “Towards a non-toxic South-East Asia”, financed by the government of Sweden.

From 18 - 29 September 2017, FAO hosted a second training-of-trainers workshop on its Pesticide Registration Toolkit. This particular training of trainers focussed on French and Spanish speaking experts, which will enable the Toolkit team to provide Toolkit training in Francophone and Spanish speaking countries and thus reach out to parts of Africa and Latin America. During the training, a global team of experts in pesticide registration and management (Burkina Faso, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, France, Germany, Mali, Peru and Tunisia) discussed materials developed by FAO to make registration authorities in developing countries aware of the Toolkit and train them in its use. Registration is an important step in management of pesticides. It enables authorities primarily to determine which products are permitted to be used and for what purposes, and also to exercise control over quality, use levels, claims, labelling, packaging and advertising of pesticides. Thus, registration a key step to ensure that the interests of end-users as well as the environment are well protected. This process is particularly complex in countries with limited resources. To help filling this gap, the FAO Toolkit is designed for assisting pesticide registrars from developing countries in the day to day tasks to conduct pesticide registration, including those aspects that concern risk assessment. It facilitates finding data requirements, evaluating human and environmental risks, and determining risk mitigation measures. The Toolkit will also assist registrars in accessing many kinds of pesticide-specific information such as the registration status in other countries, scientific reviews and hazard classifications among others. Hans Dreyer, Director of the Plant Production and Protection Division at FAO, stressed to participants that the FAO Agricultural Department is pursuing sustainable crop production intensification that follows Integrated Pest Management approaches based on agro-ecological principles. Reducing risks of pesticides is an important component that still faces many challenges, and the newly developed FAO Toolkit on Pesticide Registration will provide strong support to pesticide regulatory authorities particularly in developing countries on sound management and risk reduction of pesticides throughout their life cycle.  An extensive programme to roll out the Toolkit in various Francophone and Spanish speaking regions of the world was also established. FAO will continue to develop new modules in the Toolkit and update its contents, to ensure that pesticide registration staff are supported in contributing to sustainable agricultural intensification. For more information, contact Gu Baogen ([email protected])

A six day regional workshop on the FAO Pesticide Registration Toolkit was organized from May 29 to June 2 in Beijing, China. Pesticide registrars from Lao PR (4), Cambodia (4), Philipines (4), Indonesia (1) and China (15) participated in this training workshop, which was jointly organized by the FAO Regional Office for Southeast Asia and ICAMA, the Chinese Institute for Control of Agrochemicals - Ministry of Agriculture. The participants were introduced to the Toolkit through presentations and practical exercises and shared experiences with their colleagues from the different participating countries. ICAMA, the host institute, presented its experiences with Highly Hazardous Pesticides and assessment modelling for occupational and environmental risks. Even though the countries differ greatly in the resources available for- and current approaches to- registration of pesticides, the Toolkit proved to contain elements for each country to improve registration practices at their own resource level.