New registrations of agricultural pesticides provide more efficient and less toxic products

Minister Tereza Cristina (Agriculture, Livestock and Supply) said today (6) that the approval of new registrations of agricultural pesticides makes more efficient and less toxic products available. At breakfast with journalists, she explained the need to make the registration queue move in Brazil, which results in more modern and even cheaper products.

“When we register new products, we are bringing formulas to the market that are necessarily less toxic, more modern and environmentally safer,” he said.

The minister recalled that Brazil is the only country in the world that, by law, cannot register any product that is more toxic or equal to what already exists on the market. “Brazil has very firm rules, in fact, Brazil is the only country in the world that has a law that in order to approve a new pesticide registration, it has to be less toxic than those already on the market. So, there is total security for the consumer.” 

She once again assured that food produced in Brazil is safe. "Our food is absolutely safe. We cannot terrorize Brazilian consumers, no one is putting poison on anyone's plate," she highlighted. 

The minister also criticized comparisons of Brazilian agriculture with that of other countries. “We have different cultures, different climates, and Brazil doesn’t use anything that can’t be used. We cannot compare our tropical agriculture with temperate agriculture in Europe and the United States, which sometimes uses other products that we don't even have a record of because they won't be used here.”

She also recalled that Brazil exports its food to 162 countries, which are constantly evaluated. “Do you think we could be exporting if there were no controls on our products when entering these countries?”, she asked. The Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed (RASFF), used by Europe to identify residues in food, only made two notifications to Brazil in 2019. 

Of the 262 products registered this year, only 7 are new, with two new active ingredients (sulfoxaflor and florpirauxifen-benzyl). The rest are classified as equivalent, or generic. In the last three years, 27 registered product patents have been broken. Current legislation requires that the market be opened when the patent expires, and this brings a drop in prices in agricultural costs. 

Capacity

Tereza Cristina also expressed concern about small farmers due to possible contamination when applying pesticides to crops. According to her, although inspection is the responsibility of the states, the Ministry of Agriculture will support training actions for producers. 

“He is the hardest hit when there is not the correct information. He handles the product and may have health problems due to misuse, not using the appropriate clothing and equipment. We will ask for this information to reach these producers through technical assistance, so that they can take care of their own health.” 

Revaluation

To complement the registration process for new, less toxic products, Anvisa will soon launch a new system for reevaluating pesticides that are already on the market. “This is one of the most powerful instruments that Anvisa has to remove highly toxic products from the market, ultimately reducing the toxicity standard in Brazil”, says director Renato Porto. From 2006 to today, Anvisa has already reevaluated 16 products and 12 were banned in Brazil.

The director also explained that the new reclassification of pesticides recently carried out by Anvisa aims to align Brazil's standards with international standards and better communicate to farmers the risks to which they are subject. "Several studies were carried out, and Anvisa looked into and evaluated toxicity rates and limits that are capable of saying that the product is safe on the market, without any doubt." 

Researcher Caio Carbonari, from the Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp) highlighted that the approval of new agricultural pesticides is necessary to guarantee safer molecules and to put Brazilian agriculture on par with other countries. “It makes no sense to repress these records, no one benefits from this, not society, not the producer, not the consumer,” he said. 

Clarifications on Agricultural Pesticides Registrations

It is not only the Ministry of Agriculture that examines the request for records, but also technicians from Anvisa and Ibama, who have complete autonomy
To be registered, agricultural pesticides must be evaluated and approved by the Ministry of Agriculture regarding agronomic efficiency, by the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) regarding the impact on human health and by the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama ) regarding impacts on the environment. There is no political interference in the analysis and the technical assessment carried out by the three federal bodies is in line with best international practices.

No registration granted this year began to be processed in 2019. Therefore, it cannot have been evaluated only in the six months of Bolsonaro's government
There is a long process, prior to 2019, that cannot be ignored: registration requests have been waiting in the queue for an average of four years – and some for a decade, despite the law setting a deadline of 120 days for response. Hundreds of companies obtained an injunction in court to have priority service in this queue, which still has more than 2000 requests today. Therefore, the government did not rush or break any records: the current monthly average for granting registration is similar to that of the last two years, when Anvisa, above all, started paying more attention to the defensive line.

The government does not release pesticides onto the market; it grants registrations for industrial and formulated products, which may or may not reach the shelves
Around 48% of authorized formulated products were not effectively marketed due to the decision of the companies holding the registrations. In recent years, several bureaucratic measures have been adopted within the three federal bodies involved. This enabled a significant increase in the number of registered pesticides. Among the actions that stand out is the adoption of the SEI computerized system for document management within the scope of the Federal Government, the transfer of chemicals from Embrapa to Mapa to work on the assessment of chemical equivalence for the registration of generic products, the reorganization of the General Management of Toxicology at Anvisa - a fact that led to an increase in productivity and the registration of less toxic products. By law, no current product can be registered with greater toxicity than those currently on the market.

Of the 262 products registered this year, only 7 are new, with two new active ingredients (sulfoxaflor and florpirauxifen-benzyl). The rest are classified as equivalent, or generic
By law, the government is required to break the patent on a formula when its term expires. Equivalent products are similar to products with an expired patent and which were registered in the past, of safe use and proven not only by studies presented to the bodies involved, but also by empirical proof of years of use without verified problems. Generics constitute an important policy for reducing the impacts of monopolies and oligopolies on the market for certain active ingredients. A dynamic that benefits free competition and the competitiveness of national agriculture. In the last three years, 27 registered product patents have been broken.

More than half of the products registered this year are active ingredients for the industry
Of the 262 products registered in 2019, 136 are technical products, that is, intended exclusively for industrial use. Another 126 are formulated products, that is, those that are ready to be purchased by rural producers upon the recommendation of an agronomist. Of these, 14 are biological and/or organic products.

As the registration queue moves forward, the government is working to modernize the use of pesticides, including the approval of bio-defenses
Brazil currently has 262 registered low-toxicity products, including microbiological, semi-chemical (pheromones) and organic agricultural products, such as plant extracts. The registration of biologicals on Mapa intensified from 2015 onwards. In 2018 alone, 52 products were registered, a record since 1991, when the first biological control was released in the country. This year, 14 products of this type have already been registered. The production of biological products to control agricultural pests and diseases grew by more than 70% last year in Brazil. Biodefensive products are used in organic agriculture. The objective of making the queue move in Brazil is precisely to approve new, less toxic and environmentally correct molecules, and thus replace older products. As already mentioned, the law does not allow the registration of products that are more toxic than those already on the market.

It is not correct to compare all pesticides that are used in Europe, for example, with the products used in Brazil
Whether or not a pesticide is registered depends on the pests present in each territory and the crops that are grown there. Each country has its own guidelines on product registration depending on agronomic conditions. Therefore, it is not correct to compare all pesticides that are used in Europe, for example, with the products used in Brazil.

A country where bananas are not grown does not need to register a pesticide to control the rhizome borer, for example. Europe does not need the herbicide lactofen to protect soybeans, as grain production is considered negligible.

Even so, the vast majority of agrochemicals used here are also used in Europe, the United States and China. Brazil observes all international standards, studies and references.

The consumption of pesticides in Brazil is influenced by the occurrence of two or three harvests per year (winter and off-season crops)
Because of this, it is necessary to use pesticides here to control pests even in winter and off-season crops, as there is no break in the reproduction cycle, due to the tropical conditions of Brazilian agriculture. In regions with a temperate climate, pests are inactivated during cold periods. Pesticides are essential tools for effective pest control in agriculture and ensuring the health of crops. Its use in correct prescription and dosage is effective in a country where high average humidity and temperature, combined with extensive cultivation, favor the multiplication and spread of pests.

The most challenging pests were defeated in Brazil with integrated management of agrochemicals, biodefenses and established practices, such as crop rotation
This is how, using science, we faced pests and diseases, namely:
Witch's broom - name popularized by a soap opera. Attacked the cocoa crop in Brazil, recovered with the use of fungicide and biodefense
Black Sigatoka - attacked the banana tree and was combated with chemical, biological control and genetic improvement
Wood Wasp – pine – biological control
Boll weevil – cotton – chemical and cultural control. (Cultural control means: Soil mobilization, crop rotation, fertilization, change of planting time, pruning or thinning, irrigation or drainage, destruction of alternative hosts, use of barriers and mechanical destruction)
Soybean rust – soy – chemical and cultural control
Helicoverpa armígera – soybeans, cotton, corn, beans and several other crops – chemical and biological control
Citrus canker – citrus – cultural, chemical and biological control
Fruit flies – mango, citrus, guava, peach, etc. – chemical and biological control
Carambola Fly – various crops – restricted to the states of AP, RR and some areas of PA – being eradicated using chemical and cultural control

Despite the increase in the number of registrations of agricultural pesticides in the country that has been occurring in recent years, the sale of these products registered a reduction in the period
From 2016 to 2017, the number of pesticide registrations increased from 277 to 405, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture. In the same period, the total value of sales of active ingredients in the country fell from 541.861,09 tons to 539.944,95 tons, according to the Annual Bulletin of Production, Importation, Exportation and Sales of Pesticides in Brazil, prepared by Ibama. Farmers want to use less and less pesticides on their crops, as they are expensive and represent up to 30% of the production cost.

According to FAO, the relative use of pesticides in Brazil is lower than that of many European countries
Brazil appears in 44th position in a FAO ranking on the use of agricultural pesticides. According to the entity's data, relative consumption in the country was 4,31 kilos of pesticides per hectare cultivated in 2016. Among the European countries that use more pesticides than Brazil, the Netherlands (9,38 kg/ha), Belgium (6,89 kg/ha), Italy (6,66 kg/ha), Montenegro (6,43 kg/ha), Ireland (5,78 kg/ha), Portugal (5,63 kg/ha), Switzerland (5,07 kg/ha) and Slovenia (4,86 kg/ha).

Under the criterion of pesticide consumption depending on agricultural production, Brazil appears in 58th place, with use of 0,28 kilograms of pesticide per ton of agricultural products. In the balance, the production values ​​of grains, fibers, fruits, pulses, roots and nuts and the total consumption of pesticides available on the FAO statistics portal were used. In this ranking, countries such as Portugal (0,66), Italy (0,44), Slovenia (0,36), Spain (0,35), Switzerland (0,34), Countries
Lows (0,29) and Greece (0,30). In 59th place comes France, with the use of 0,26 kilos of pesticides per ton of agricultural products.
Food produced in Brazil is safe in terms of pesticide residues
Pesticides recommendations have a scientific basis that uses rigorous safety factors to assess health risks for farmers and consumers. Our foods are tested and approved. When there is waste, it is far below what is permitted by international codes. Food produced in Brazil is exported to 160 countries, and tested both when leaving Brazil and when entering other countries.

In the report from Anvisa's Pesticide Residue Analysis Program (PARA), carried out between 2013 and 2015, of the 12.051 collections of 25 fresh foods, 134 samples were detected with “potential acute risk” for human health, which which represents an index of 1,1% of the samples. New PARA results will be released soon.

Food traceability is being implemented, which will even detail the use of pesticides. It is a requirement that we will have to comply with for the domestic and foreign markets, including for vegetables and fruits.

The RASFF (Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed), used by Europe to identify residues in food, only made two notifications to Brazil in 2019
This year, Brazil had two Rasff notifications for agrochemical residues. From 1999 to today there have been 75 notifications, with the highest number occurring in 2015, with 13 complaints, which dropped to seven in 2016. From 2017 to today, we have added 5 notifications.

The Ministry of Agriculture's commitment is to safe food, without opposing conventional to organic, but large-scale agriculture today depends on pesticides.
The Ministry of Agriculture encourages organic products. In less than a decade, the number of registered organic rural producers in Brazil tripled. The organic market had revenues of R$4 billion last year, a result 20% higher than that recorded in 2017. The Ministry of Agriculture has just signed an agreement with Chile to export organic products.

To stimulate the production and consumption of biodefensive products and other biological inputs, the National Input Program for Organic Agriculture, Bioinsumos, was created in this first semester.

But today, without the use of pesticides, the price of food would rise a lot, due to low productivity. UN data shows that, if agricultural pesticides did not exist, around 40% of what is currently produced would be lost due to pests and diseases, increasing the prices of existing products and reducing people's access to products. Organics are still more expensive items, produced on a low scale.

Cases of contamination occur mainly when pesticides are applied carelessly. All cases must be investigated and action taken.
The government will prepare a legislative measure to increase supervision and training of farmers in the application of pesticides.

Unfortunately, contamination still occurs at the time of application and this is where we need, especially with small producers, to take extra care, require the use of protective equipment, check prescriptions and increase supervision.

This is a task for the States, but one that concerns the federal government. It is unacceptable that farmers still risk their health when carrying out their work. It is also unacceptable for nature to suffer damage.

Brazil has already banned several products that have been confirmed to be toxic and harmful; It is reassessing some today in public consultation, such as glyphosate, which is the most used herbicide in the world, and will remove others from the market in 2020, such as paraquat, as already informed by Anvisa.

The use of Sulfoxaflor in Brazil must follow the guidelines established by Ibama to mitigate the risk for pollinating insects
Such as, for example, the restriction of application during crop flowering periods, the establishment of maximum product dosages and minimum application distances in relation to the border to protect non-apis bees. These restrictions appear on product labeling and are established according to each ingredient and culture.

Sulfoxaflor is registered in 82 countries, including the United States, which two weeks ago extended the validity of the molecule's registration, and European countries. Furthermore, from the point of view of human health, it is among the 20% less toxic insecticides currently approved.