54^th Meeting of the Working Party on Plant Protection Products

Antalya (TR), 2024-05-28/30

The 54^th Meeting of the Working Party on Plant Protection Products (PPP) took place in Antalya, on 2024-05-28/30. Special thanks are due to Mr Bayram and his colleagues from the General Directorate of Food and Control of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Türkiye for their warm hospitability and excellent organisation of this meeting, as well as arranging the field trip. During the field trip Agrikem, a PPP manufacturer, Doğa Tarım, a PPP warehouse, and Besko Tarim Marketleri, a PPP marketer were visited.

The meeting of the Working Party on Plant Protection Products was attended by 22 participants including 16 representatives from EPPO countries, as well as an observer of the European Commission, of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Türkiye and of CropLife Europe and 3 EPPO staff members. This Working Party directs and supervises the technical work of the EPPO Panels concerned with the efficacy evaluation of plant protection products. The major points of the meeting are summarised below.

EPPO Standards for approval

The Working Party on Plant Protection Products approved eight Standards in the series PP1 Efficacy Evaluation of Plant Protection Products, including three new General Standards, three new Specific Standards and two revised Specific Standards. These will be submitted to the EPPO Council in September 2024 for final approval and subsequent publication in the EPPO Bulletin.

New General Standards

Adoption of Digital Technology for Data Generation for the Efficacy Evaluation of plant protection products
Principles for recording yield data when evaluating the efficacy of fungicides and insecticides
Principles of extrapolation in major uses

New Specific Standards

Seed wasps in almonds, pistachios and plums
Evaluation of mating disruption techniques against Lepidopteran pests in vegetable and ornamental crops under protected conditions
Efficacy evaluation of herbicides used with mechanical weeders

Revised Specific Standards

PP 1/131 Diaspididae scales on pome and stone fruits
PP 1/011 Moths of grapevine

Resistance to Plant Protection Products

The EPPO Database on Resistance Cases was presented to the meeting participants. This Database shares information about resistance cases including early detection of resistance cases, as well as resistance cases that occur only locally, if they are based on data. The Database, is available for EPPO member countries since September 2021 at https://resistance.eppo.int/

The Working Party was updated on the progress of submission and validation of resistance cases to the Database. More than 1000 cases have been submitted, from which, approximately, 800 have been validated. Currently, 26 countries have nominated a contact point and those who have not nominated one were encouraged to do so.

Extrapolation Database for Minor Uses

The EPPO extrapolation tables (pdf versions) have been developed since 2007 to be used in conjunction with the EPPO Standard PP 1/257 Efficacy and crop safety extrapolations for minor uses. The Working Party agreed that the information in the tables can now be made available through the new EPPO Database on PPP Data Extrapolation. This database aims to provide a searchable tool to retrieve the extrapolation possibilities and make the information more accessible. The database provides detailed lists of possible extrapolations for efficacy data, for regulatory authorities and applicants, in the context of the registration of plant protection products for minor uses. Improving the Database will continue, including extending the extrapolation possibilities to major uses. The Database was launched in June 2024 and is available at https://extrapolation.eppo.int/

Work Programme

The Working Party discussed future activities and priorities which will be submitted, as part of EPPO’s Work Programme 2025, to the EPPO Council in September 2024 for approval. In addition to proposals for new Standards or revision of existing ones, the Working Party agreed on a number of activities to improve the EPPO PP1 Database and the EPPO Classification to describe PPP uses . Participants were informed that an EPPO Workshop will be organized on the future work of EPPO, to start the preparation of the next Strategic Plan for 2026 – 2030. EPPO member countries will be invited to attend this Workshop and relevant PPP stakeholders will also be consulted in the process of preparing for the Workshop.