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Brazil approved 50 agrochemicals for minor crops in 2014

Nearly 80 minor crops are already included in a list of crops that will benefit from new registration of active ingredients, according to Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Supply. The expectation is that 47 other minor crops will be included in the coming months. The normative instruction INC 01/2014 measure made the use extension to the crops possible. For decades, farmers dealt with the fact that no legal grounds to apply pesticides on their minor crops - which led them to illegally use products.

The norm INC 01/2014 works as a facilitator. It lists a set of rules for a company to request new product registrations for certain crops through refining minor groups.

"The norm eases the presentation of some studies made by companies. In order to prove the effectiveness, it is just needed to show a report saying briefly that the product works to control a pest on a specific crop, with a particular agricultural practice. That works as an incentive for industry cooperation," said Álvaro Inácio, federal inspector of the Ministry of Agriculture.

Juliano Malty, expert at Brazil's National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), reminds that the new norm is a "partnership between rural producers and companies. At first, we established a dialogue with companies, requesting support and we met producers to ask about the products that they used. And in this way the norm was built".

In November, Anvisa approved 50 new agchem ais for minor crops in 2014, including pineapples, strawberries, oranges, cucumbers, and carrots.