Successful workshop on new assessment framework for sustainable plant protection products
Some 50 manufacturers and consultants from the Netherlands and abroad attended last week's workshop in Ede on applications and dossiers for microbial substances in plant protection protects. The participants received information about EU requirements for applications involving active substances based on bacteria, viruses or fungi. These substances are an important basis for more sustainable plant protection products. EU regulations for the assessment of these substances have recently been updated. The updated assessment framework has been in use since the end of November, and the Netherlands is the first Member State to hold a workshop on the new dossier requirements.
Modified assessment framework for microbial substances
Microbial substances are an important aspect of sustainable plant protection. These substances have very different characteristics than chemical substances. To make the assessment of microbial substances more compatible with these specific characteristics and to take advantage of the expertise in this field, the EU has modified the assessment framework.
Unlike synthetic chemicals, micro-organisms occur naturally. As a result, much scientific knowledge about micro-organisms is already available that can serve as the basis for an application and dossier. In addition, there are major differences between various microbial species, which makes it more difficult to establish fixed requirements for the dossier. The key message of the workshop was therefore that applicants should carefully consider the available knowledge about the specific micro-organism in order to prepare a high-quality, coherent dossier. A central question here is what data requirements are relevant and how can they best be fulfilled?
Ctgb surprised by the interest in microbial substances
Workshop leader Jacobijn van Etten describes the initiative: "The Ctgb wants to support the development of sustainable plant protection. For that purpose, we have appointed a special 'Green Team'. We believe it is important to provide correct information to our applicants at the earliest possible stage, and they have also requested this information. We were pleasantly surprised by the enormous interest in this topic from the sector, which we see as a positive signal. In fact, the two days were oversubscribed, which is why we will probably repeat the workshop early next year."
If you would like to be notified when this workshop is repeated, please send your contact information to Team Communication.