Chile announces changes to the agrochemical registration priority system

 

In order to contribute to the availability of agrochemicals that meet the needs and problems of national agriculture and respond to the demands of an increasingly competitive and demanding world, the SAG initiated a call for a new prioritization procedure for evaluating the authorization application of pesticides.

 

This new mechanism will allow trade associations or organizations of agricultural producers, whether national or regional in nature, to prioritize one or more pesticides that are required for the area they are developing, providing all the background that justifies the requirement.

 

Pesticides that apply for this prioritization process should have already entered the service for their registration process, either in stage I or stage II; so, applications for new pesticides will not be accepted. Applications will remain open between April 13 and June 10, 2020.

 

The criteria for evaluating applications are identification of the gap or problem in the agricultural sector and benefits and solutions that the pesticide will provide to the agricultural sector. The sub-criteria will have a differentiated score. Some of them are:

 

• The pesticide provides a solution to a problem in a specific productive sector or national agriculture
• The presentation is accompanied by letters from trade associations or other organizations of agricultural producers, other than the one making the presentation

• The presentation is accompanied by letters from public institutions, Non-Governmental Organizations, or other independent entities such as research centers and universities, among others

• The presentation is accompanied by antecedents of the productive sector (quantity, distribution and extension of producers), and others that it considers pertinent

• The pesticide corresponds to a new active substance, or new formulation of an already registered substance, or provides technology that contributes to reducing risks for the user in the application, improving the management of resistance to pesticides, or other aspects

• The pesticide contributes to the integrated management of pests, such as biological type pesticides, extracts or semiochemicals

• The pesticide provides a solution for special treatment requirements demanded by authorities or importers from destination countries

• The pesticide provides a solution in the absence of effective alternatives to avoid non-compliance associated with residues in export products

• The pesticide is required for use in export seedbeds and GMO seedlings, for which an authorized pesticide in Chile with similar characteristics is not available

• The pesticide is required in emerging items that do not have authorized pesticides, or items with less than 10 pesticides formulated for that item

 

The final score of each application will correspond to the weighted sum of the resulting values in each sub-criterion analyzed. In the event of a tie or controversy, the Chief of the Division of Agricultural and Forest Protection will finally decide on the request that will be prioritized within the annual number of prioritized assessment quotas for new applications for authorization of pesticides.