42nd Meeting of the Working Party on Plant Protection Products
Gammarth, TN, 2012-05-15/17
The 42nd Meeting of the Working Party on Plant Protection Products took place in Gammarth, Tunisia on 2012-05-15/17. Many thanks are due to the Tunisian Ministry of Agriculture for kindly hosting the meeting. There were 16 participants from 10 EPPO countries and ECPA. The Working Party also enjoyed a visit to the Djebel Zaghouan region south of Tunis and viewed the local agriculture.
The EPPO Working Party directs and supervises the technical work of the EPPO Panels concerned with the registration of plant protection products. The major points from the meeting are summarized below.
Working Party participants
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EPPO Standards for approval
The Working Party on Plant Protection Products continues to approve a steady flow of new and revised EPPO Standards in series PP1 Efficacy Evaluation of Plant Protection Products. A total of 10 General Standard and 10 specific standards will be submitted to the Executive Committee and Council of EPPO in September 2012 for approval and publication:
Specific standards
- Prays oleae (PP 1/130)
- Bactrocera oleae – canopy spray (PP 1/108)
- Bactrocera oleae – bait application (new)
- Foliage diseases of Asparagus officinalis (new)
- Foliar and ear diseases on cereals (PP1/26)
- Seed treatments against seedling diseases (PP1/125)
- Foliar and ear diseases on cereals (PP1/26)
- Weeds in grapevine (PP1/64)
- Control of suckers in hop (PP1/162)
- Retardation of growth in grass (PP1/146)
General standards
- Principles of efficacy evaluation for microbial plant protection products (new)
- Insecticide co-formulated mixtures (new)
- Principles of zonal data production and evaluation (new)
- Dose expression for plant protection products (PP1/239)
- Introduction to the efficacy evaluation of plant protection products (PP1/223)
- Number of efficacy trials (PP 1/226)
- Minimum effective dose (PP 1/225)
- Principles of acceptable efficacy (PP1/214)
- Design and analysis of efficacy evaluation trials (PP1/152)
- Conduct and reporting of efficacy evaluation trials (PP 1/181)
The Working Party provided further steering for the development of new draft standards on adjuvants and changes to the chemical composition of plant protection products. These will be forwarded to the relevant technical Panels for further work.
Zonal efficacy evaluation
With the entry into force of the new EU Regulation 1107/2009 (on 2011-06-14), much of the discussions focused on the outcomes of the EPPO Workshop on Zonal Efficacy Assessments. A new draft EPPO Standard based on these recommendations was finalized and approved by the Working Party entitled, ‘Principles of zonal data production and evaluation’. A number of General Standards were also revised (see the above list) in order to take account of and align them with concepts for zonal authorization.
Extrapolation tables for minor uses
The work on the preparation of extrapolation tables for minor uses continues. The extrapolation tables should be used in conjunction with EPPO Standard PP 1/257 Efficacy and crop safety extrapolations for minor uses. A total of 40 extrapolation tables have now been completed. The tables provide detailed lists of extrapolations organized by crop group. New effectiveness tables were approved for the following, and will shortly be added to the EPPO website:
- Fungicides - Leafy vegetables
- Fungicides - Tree nuts
- Insecticides - Leafy vegetables
- Insecticides - Tree nuts
The Working Party was also briefed on international developments on minor uses, in particular on the Global Minor Use Summit (GMUS-2) which took place at FAO, Rome, 2012-02-20/24. At this meeting an EPPO presentation on progress in extrapolation, zonal evaluation and global climate zones, had been well received. The brochure, post-summit work-plan, and report can be found at www.gmup.org.
Programme of activity
The Working Party also discussed future activities and priorities for consideration by the EPPO Council in September 2012. These include activities in zonal evaluation; proposals for new Standards and amendments to existing Standards to address the new EC Regulation; minor uses including extrapolation; the elaboration of EPPO Codes for group and pest groups to assist PPP databases; and IPM.
The next Working Party on Plant Protection Product is due to convene in Croatia, 2013-05-22/24.