New agrochemicals law is approved in Argentinean province

The House of Representatives in Argentina's province of Santa Fe approved a new agrochemicals law which limits the applications of the products. After years of discussion, the House approved that ground spraying can be done legally from 100 to 200 meters away from populations depending if there is a forest barrier or not. Up to 800 meters, the application of agrochemicals with lower levels of toxicity is only allowed under the control of an inspector, who has to be an agronomist.

The aerial applications are permitted just with a municipal order in the case that the ground spraying is not possible. The bill now has passed to the Senate. The new law has faced criticisms from opposition leaders and local farmers.

Representative José Tessa argued that he voted against the new law because the previous legislation was deemed by him as more adequate and would preserve “life”. “The law of 1995 established that [the applications] should be done 500 meters away and the aerial fumigations could be done 3,000 meters away. It is a problem of the administrative power. Now we have to generate the necessary control to make the new law enforced. The first value that we should preserve is the human life,” affirmed Tessa.

On the other hand, Inés Bertero, a representative from the official party, said that the new legislation is inclusive and the administration heard the opinions from different sectors of the society. “The goal of the legislation is to reduce the risks of agrochemical applications and to achieve a more productive and sustainable system, and not generate undesired impacts on environmental quality and the population's health,” she defended. The enforcement will continue to be done by the Production Ministry of the province.