The Review for Development of The Environmental Pesticide Risk Assessment to Allow Variable Rate Spraying

Descriptions

Can the pesticide risk assessment be developed to ensure it accords more closely with modern farming practice? The current plant protection product (pesticide) risk assessment process estimates exposures of people and the environment to chemicals applied by operators. The exposures are assessed against values known to be protective of human health and adverse environmental impact. The assessment process is commonly based on amounts of pesticide applied per hectare (g/ha or kg/ha). It is assumed, for example, in broadacre cropping that pest, weed and disease pressure is evenly distributed throughout the field and that the entire area is treated with a homogenous spray. This assumption is not representative of some current/emerging/potential new practice, where use of new technologies enables farmers to detect and map plant health, vigour, pest and disease levels and nutrient availability and tailor inputs accordingly (applying treatments only where they are required). Authorisation holders have contacted HSE CRD to discuss both tailored inputs and variable rate spraying as they see these developments as supporting farmers and increasing the availably of new pesticides. This project involves reviewing the pesticide risk assessment for ecotoxicology and environmental fate and behaviour and considering: •how an assessment could be carried out that models / assesses the risks of variable rate spraying above and below a set level •what are the effects of those changes to the way the risk assessment is carried out on specific areas, for example -birds and mammals, aquatic organisms, bees, non-target arthropods, soil organisms and non-target plants -surface water, sediment, groundwater, drain flow and soil •any trade-off between the potential benefits and increases in complexity and data requirements •consideration should be given to potential risk mitigation measures that are available and appropriate The contractor will need to produce a report proposing a range of potential methods for carrying out an environmental risk assessment capable of supporting variable rate application rates. The report must be relevant to the United Kingdom. The final report should be of sufficient quality and suitable for publication as a standalone report in the Defra Scientific Series Defra, UK - Science Search.