Political background
The policy document Sustainable Crop Protection of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Safety (Ministry of LNV) indicates that the Dutch government strives for strict environmental criteria for plant protection products at EU level. However, it also indicates there should be a level playing field for Dutch agriculture, implying that the Netherlands do not intend to use environmental criteria that are more strict than those at EU level (unless specific national conditions make this necessary).
The plant protection product registration in the Netherlands is carried out by an independent organisation, i.e. the Ctgb. The Dutch government is responsible for defining protection goals and for providing corresponding adequate risk assessment methodologies to the Ctgb. The usual procedure is that such methodologies are developed in consensus workgroups containing scientists from relevant Dutch research institutes and from Ctgb.
Currently the European Commission is finalizing the new EU regulation for placing plant protection products on the market. An important aspect of this new regulation is the introduction of zonal risk assessment procedures (the Netherlands are part of the central zone). Within each zone, risk assessment procedures have to be harmonized as much as possible.
Knowledge to be developed
The Ministry of LNV has indicated that risk assessment methodologies have to be developed, validated, reviewed or improved for the protection goals in relation to:
risk to aquatic organisms
persistence in soil
leaching to groundwater
non-target plants
aquatic organisms in surface water.
. Assessment methodologies in relation to risk to aquatic organisms:
-Adequate handling of time-variable exposure of aquatic organisms in larger water courses in the risk assessment
-Testing of the TOXSWA model against measured behaviour of plant protection products in water courses and including exposure to transformation products of plant protection products formed in surface water or in water sediments in TOXSWA
-Analysis of main causes of differences between available spray drift measurements from the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark.
. Assessment methodologies in relation to leaching to groundwater and surface water:
-Testing whether current Dutch risk assessment procedure for leaching to groundwater prevents registration of plant protection products that may lead to exceedance of the 0.1 g/L criterion in Dutch drinking water wells
-Development of model for leaching from drainpipes in cracked clay soils
-Development of guidance for using studies on long-term sorption kinetics in the national and EU leaching assessments.
. Assessment methodologies in relation to persistence in soil:
-Adequate methods for scenario development for exposure of soil organisms at the EU level including good interaction with the effect assessment for soil organisms.
-Assessment methodologies in relation to non-target plants:
-Tiered approach for non-target plants including both exposure and effect aspect.
. Emissions from covered crops:
-Tiered approach for emissions from greenhouses to surface water for the different systems of covered crops. |
