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AgVetLink June 2005

OECD Meetings Planned for November 2005

New Zealand will host meetings of two of the OECD pesticides groups (the Risk Reduction Steering Group and the Registration Steering Group) in November 2005.

International representation

The OECD has asked that a media event be arranged to coincide with these meetings to promote the future direction of the pesticides group to governments in the Asia-Pacific region, and it is hoped that Ministers or senior government officials will agree to be associated with this event.  The meetings will have international representation and the Japanese have already signaled that they will consider having a ‘high level official’ at the event.

Field trip

As part of the Risk Reduction Steering Group activities, a field trip and seminar are being arranged to illustrate the use of application technology in pesticide risk reduction.  The field trip is designed to show the international regulators pesticide application in the pastoral, orchard and vineyard sectors in the Wairarapa. 

Seminar

The seminar, which will be open to limited numbers of non-government people, is designed to:

• identify key issues (e.g. spray drifts) related to pesticide risk reduction through better application technologies;

• review technical requirements for application technologies, focusing on the minimum requirements for performance, maintenance and control of application technologies;

• review regulatory (e.g. equipment inspections) and voluntary (e.g. spray drift management guidelines) mechanisms that exist to address these issues;

• consider how countries could stimulate the development and use of pesticide application technologies that reduce risks  (to humans and the environment), including the economics and practicability of such technologies; and

• identify options available to OECD countries and key stakeholders in OECD and non-OECD countries regarding steps that can be taken to address these issues.

In order to facilitate lively discussions, the number of participants will be kept to no more than 50 including:

• members of the OECD Working Group on Pesticides, including members of the Pesticide Risk Reduction Steering Group and Registration Steering Group;

• invited experts from key stakeholder groups such as contract sprayers and equipment manufacturers; and

• practitioners from government, industry, farmers/growers and other stakeholder groups and non-OECD countries.

(The actual meetings of the Risk Reduction Steering Group and Registration Steering Group are not open to non-members.)