Pesticide PL advances with centralization in Agriculture – 11/22/2023 – Environment

The Senate Environment Committee approved, this Wednesday (22), the bill that changes the regulations for the use of pesticides, dubbed by critics as the Poison PL.

The report by senator Fabiano Contarato (PT-ES) removed the possibility of temporary registration of agricultural pesticides, but maintained the centralization in the Ministry of Agriculture for pesticide reevaluation procedures.

Temporary registration is one of the main demands of the ruralist bench. Centralization in the agricultural sector is one of the points most criticized by environmentalists.

A technical note authored by Ibama (Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources) criticizes a series of points maintained in the project that leave the coordination of the reanalysis of products to the Agriculture department.

The reanalysis process is one of the main devices, as it can or cannot seal pesticides in use on the market.

According to the approved text, in a series of cases, the studies carried out by Ibama and also by Anvisa (National Health Surveillance Agency) could end up as complements to Agriculture’s understanding of the processes.

Furthermore, the proposal allows agricultural pesticides in the process of reanalysis, which currently have their application suspended, to be used until the process is completed.

According to Ibama’s note, the project could give “disproportionate power in relation to Ibama and Anvisa in the process of regulating and standardizing pesticides.”

The project says that it is up to the Ministry of Agriculture to “analyze and approve the technical opinions presented in the claims”.

In his latest opinion, Contarato defended the “maintenance of the federal body responsible for the agriculture sector as coordinator of the pesticide reanalysis process”, leaving the procedures relating to environmental control products to Ibama.

The PT senator, however, excluded all provisions that created the possibility of temporary registration of pesticides.

According to him, the proposal “opens the possibility for the effective granting of registration and commercialization in the country of molecules that have not even been evaluated by the competent Brazilian bodies” and, therefore, must be rejected.

The device, however, is a request from the ruralist bench, which complains about the procedures of the inspection bodies and the delay in bureaucracy for the analysis of pesticides.

The proposal had already been forwarded to the Senate plenary, but was submitted to the Environment Committee following a request from Senator Eliziane Gama (PSD-MA).

Now, approved by the group, the text will return to the plenary, already being processed urgently. According to Senator Tereza Cristina (PP-SM), the proposal is not the best in her view, but the wording forwarded is “possible”.

The government and agriculture reached an agreement on the project, but it ended up being undone during the negotiations, among other differences, due to a lack of consensus around the temporary registration.