Crop Protection
Fruit and vegetable growers require effective crop protection tools to tackle pest pressures from the environment (weeds, insects, and diseases). Without such tools, our sector would not be able to supply plentiful, nutritious, and affordable produce to Canadians, which in turn would lead to higher food prices, increased reliance on imports, and ultimately greater food insecurity.The Issue
There is an urgent need for access to an increased range of modern and innovative crop protection tools as many of the products once relied upon have been cancelled or have lost / reduced effectiveness in the field. This urgency is underscored by the unprecedented demand for the emergency use registration program – a program that was created to address crisis pest outbreaks when existing tools are insufficient.
Canadian growers rely on two government agencies to access crop protection tools.
- Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Pest Management Centre (PMC) plays a critical role in ensuring Canadian growers are equipped with effective and safe pest management tools by supporting product registrations through research. Since PMC’s inception, FVGC estimates that over 3,000 new uses have been registered in Canada for fruit and vegetable crops.
- Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) is the federal body responsible for science-based regulation of crop protection tools in Canada. Core activities of the PMRA include issuance of product registrations and re-evaluating a registered product’s risk profile every 15 years.
As pest management becomes increasingly complex from increased pest pressures and economic impacts from the pandemic (e.g. inflation), it is essential that the government ensures the PMRA and PMC are equipped and empowered to be engaged partners in developing practical solutions for growers. Otherwise, the ability of our sector to safeguard the domestic supply chain will suffer.
Key Facts
Fruit and vegetable growers are facing reduced access to crop protection tools for a number of reasons including:
- Significant delays in bringing new products to market. In Canada, all crop protection products are reviewed by Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) to ensure they pose minimal risk to human health and the environment. Given their complexity, reviews can be time consuming, however registration timelines are now commonly not meeting performance standards set by the PMRA. For example, applications for new products (Cat. A) are taking 3 to 4 years to complete instead of the standard of two years.
- Removal without suitable alternatives being identified. Unfavourable regulatory decisions coupled with product withdrawals have created a significant deficit in the crop protection toolbox of fruit and vegetable growers. When such decisions are made, there has been little consideration to identify suitable alternatives for the fruit and vegetable sector. Instead, growers have been left to fend for themselves with fewer and fewer tools at their disposal.
- Lack of investment from the private sector. The Canadian market for crop protection tools is small, representing just 3.7% of the world market. Yet the cost to do business in Canada is more cumbersome in comparison to the United States or other trading partners. Additionally, due to their smaller scale of production, fruit and vegetable crops lack financial interest from the private sector to register new products.
- Prolonged underfunding to government programs that support registration and adoption of new tools. To address the unique challenges facing the fruit and vegetable sector, the federal government created the Pest Management Centre (PMC) Minor Use Pesticide Program within Agriculture and Agri-food Canada in 2003. Through this program, researchers located across Canada have supported the registration of crop protection tools by studying their effectiveness, integrative use and residue profiles. Unfortunately, this program is now producing about half the output from a decade ago due to funding limitations.
Recommendations
- Increase capacity and output of the Minor Use Pesticide Program by:
- Restoring research capacity at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Pest Management Centre.
- Provide additional resources at Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency to process minor use label expansions.
- Incentivize companies to bring their technologies to Canada by:
- Reducing red-tape and costs to conduct business.
- Creating efficiencies through collaboration with international partners and common standards.
- Allocation and prioritization of resources at Health Canada’s PMRA for activities which directly support the timely delivery of new crop protection tools to growers.
- New registrations
- Collection of real-world data
- Re-evaluations and special reviews
Why This Matters
Crop protection is about reducing food waste, and improving access, affordability, and reliability of safe, nutritious and sustainably grown fresh fruit and vegetables along the supply chain from farmers to consumers. Canadian fruit and vegetable growers rely on crop protection products to help control diseases, insect pests, weeds, and invasive species. Without timely access to crop protection tools, the quality, value and yield of our crops will fall, leading to more imports and weakened food security.
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