Tailor-made support for pesticide evaluation and registration
The FAO Pesticide Registration Toolkit is a decision support system for pesticide registration authorities in low- and middle income countries, designed to assist in the evaluation and authorization of pesticides. The Toolkit can best be considered as a web-based registration handbook intended for day-to-day use by registrars.
Registration staff can use the Toolkit to support several of their regular tasks, including: finding data requirements, evaluating technical aspects of the registration dossier, choosing an appropriate pesticide registration strategy and procedures, reviewing risk mitigation measures and getting advice on decision making.
The Toolkit also provides links to many pesticide-specific information sources such as registrations in other countries, scientific reviews, hazard classifications, labels, MRLs and pesticide properties.
The Toolkit and the Rotterdam Convention
Various modules of Pesticide Registration Toolkit can be of use to those involved in the implementation of the Rotterdam Convention, in particular the Designated National Authorities (DNAs):
The Assessment Methods module provides guidance on the various methods, procedures and models that are available to evaluate specific parts of the pesticide registration dossier, such as human health risks, environmental risks or product chemistry. Assessment methods are provided at different levels of complexity, ranging from basic hazard assessments, to bridging of existing risk assessments, to specific models. Registrars and DNAs can choose from these methods depending on their available resources.
The Risk Mitigation module provides an inventory of measures that can be used to reduce the risks of a pesticide, as well as information about their feasibility and impact. Risk mitigation is an important aspect of decision making for the registration of pesticides, and its local effectiveness will often determine whether a pesticide can be authorized for use or not. The module also provides simple feasibility check tools for different sets of mitigation measures.
The Information Sources module lists a large number of reputable web sites and databases that provide information which is directly relevant for the evaluation and authorization of pesticides. One can find here, among others: which countries have registered specific pesticides; how the hazards of individual pesticides have been classified; for which pesticides reputable scientific reviews have been published; etc.
The FAO Pesticide Registration Toolkit can thus be of great value for Designated National Authorities and pesticide registrars to evaluate the risk and take a decision whether to ban or severely restrict the use of a pesticide, to decide on future import of an Annex III pesticide, or to collect evidence on a potential severely hazardous pesticide formulation (SHPF).
As a result, all of the above can strongly support DNAs in notifying the Rotterdam Convention Secretariat of Final Regulatory Actions (FRA) taken, submission of Import Responses, and proposals of SHPFs.
In turn, the FAO Pesticide Registration Toolkit makes important data sources of the Rotterdam Convention, such as decision guidance documents of Annex III pesticides, or the database of notifications of final regulatory actions, directly accessible to pesticide registrars.
FAO Pesticide Registration Toolkit
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Short videos explaining specific aspects of the Toolkit
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| FAO Pesticide Registration Toolkit - Introduction |
FAO Pesticide Registration Toolkit - Registration Process |
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| FAO Pesticide Registration Toolkit - Assessment methods |
FAO Pesticide Registration Toolkit - Information Sources |
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FAO Pesticide Registration Toolkit -
Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHP) module |
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For more information on the FAO Pesticide Registration Toolkit, or for comments and suggestions about its contents, please contact: baogen.gu@fao.org and/or Christine.Fuell@fao.org.