ISHS Acta Horticulturae 905: International Symposium on Biological Control of Postharvest Diseases: Challenges and Opportunities
REGISTRY AND REGULATION OF BIOCONTROL AGENTS ON FOOD COMMODITIES IN SOUTH AMERICA |
| Author: | A.M. Cotes |
| Keywords: | biopesticides, registration, legislation, South America, biodiversity |
| DOI: | 10.17660/ActaHortic.2011.905.33 |
| Abstract:
The use of biological control agents as an integral component of biologically-based pest management strategies has had increased awareness during the last decades. Microbial pesticides have been successfully promoted to farmers in many countries of South America, mainly in systems where not chemical pesticides are available or when pest/disease resistance has made chemical alternatives increasingly expensive and or unreliable. Although farmers in general show a high level of satisfaction with the microbial pesticides they also recognize technical shortcomings with the current generation of biopesticides that will require further technical development to overcome. Faster and reliable action, good storage characteristics and technologies to apply are the main constrains considered. Brazil, Chile and Colombia have 17, 36 and 48 biocontrol products registered in 2010, respectively. However, regulation is critical for the development of biological control; there are differences in time and expenses involved in registration where there is a regulatory system. In some countries there is not regulation for biopesticides, in others as in Brazil and Chile the legislation is the same for chemical pesticides, although in Brazil, a decree establishing the criteria for registration of BCAs for organic agriculture was approved in July 2009, and in others as in Colombia, since 1994 there is a specific regulation, which was updated in 2004. Thus, the low quality of some products and the regulatory and bureaucratic problems related to registration process are responsible for the increased number of illegal biocontrol products in South America. | |
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