COLEACP’s Pesticides Initiative Programme (PIP) has conducted an assessment to consider the potential impact of changes to pesticide legislation in the EU on smallholders in ACP countries.
The changes introduce a significant shift whereby pesticide approvals will be centred on “hazard-based cut-off criteria”. This is in contrast to the existing approvals process, which considers not only hazard and toxicity, but also risk and how a product is used.
The PIP study, which took into account the results of earlier EU studies, concludes that although several pesticides used on export crops may be withdrawn in Europe, the new regulation is not likely to have a major impact in ACP countries in the short term. Substances will remain authorised until they come up for review when their listing under Annex I expires.
