Uruguay amends regulations covering registration of agrochemical applications

The Uruguayan Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture, and Fisheries (MGAP) has amended the regulations covering the registration of agrochemical applications.

Relevant information previously only required from spraying companies must now also be provided by agricultural producers.

According to Leonardo Olivera (Uruguayan Director of Agricultural Services), the goal is to create a ″differential″ in term of traceability and demonstrate to buyers that ″in Uruguay, we do things well, we are different″.

Leonardo Olivera, Uruguayan Director of Agricultural Services

He also highlighted the importance of gathering data on this activity to proving the reliability of Uruguayan products in markets where grains are exported, such as rapeseed to Europe or barley to China.

He then spoke about the controls to the use of the herbicide, paraquat, in the cultivation of rapeseed.

″For this government, the easiest action would be to ban paraquat as Brazil did and make Europe and other markets happy, therefore, losing a tool that, if you can use it well, does not cause problems,″ Olivera said.

Among some unions, mandatory registration ″was seen as something that was not positive,″ he added, noting that the Uruguayan government ″talked″ to enforcers and explained that the objective is ″to make freedom responsible.″

According to the director, the initiative is a one-year ″pilot plan″ aimed at seeing how the voluntary registration of agrochemical applications works.

The Agricultural Services resolution stipulates that individuals or legal entities that provide services to third parties and carry out pesticide applications for agricultural use in extensive crops (cereals, oilseeds and forage), forest, and horticultural crops must register the requests before spraying and seven calendar days after the application.

According to the regulation, individuals or legal entities that carry out aerial applications of phytosanitary products must register their operations before or up to three calendar days after they are carried out.

Olivera pointed out that the online registration system has a very user-friendly interface and and is easy to use, therefore, food safety and the sustainable management of production systems are required by markets that purchase these products, as well as by society, which is increasingly aware of environmental issues.

With the registration of agrochemical applications, ″it is possible to elaborate a certification″ that could have the MGAP seal, ″which would give us a very important differential,″ Olivera said in conclusion.

(Editing by Leonardo Gottems, reporter for AgroPages)