Pesticide authority gets high praises
Published:Saturday | June 18, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Christopher Serju, Gleaner Writer
OCHO RIOS, St Ann:
THE LOCAL Pesticides Control Authority (PCA) has come in for high commendation from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) for its administration and regulation of the local pesticides industry. Speaking with The Gleaner during the recent 16th meeting of the Coordinating Group of Pesticides Control Boards of the Caribbean held at Sunset Jamaica Grande in Ocho Rios, Mark Davis, senior officer for pesticides management at FAO headquarters in Rome, said he was pleased with the work of the PCA team led by registrar Michael Ramsay.
"Jamaica is definitely coming out as one of the leading countries in the Caribbean region in terms of pesticides management. A lot of the work that is being done here is of a very high level of competence and professionalism which provides good leadership for the other countries in the Caribbean, in terms of what they should be aspiring to," Davis disclosed.
"Another extremely commendable thing about the work that is being done in Jamaica is that so much of the information is made publicly available. So, not only people within Jamaica, but also people from outside can also look at everything that is being done here from the Internet and learn from that experience and build on it themselves," the FAO official noted.
Continuing, he said: "So that's proving very useful for all the other countries that are participating in the workshop that they are running here this week. In terms of the project that we are running, we are trying to help all of the countries of the Caribbean - on the one hand to improve their management of pesticides - all the way through from legislation, registration of products that are allowed to be used in these countries, through to how the products are stored and used and how empty containers are disposed of."
Hosted by the PCA, the meeting which ran from June 6-10, was sponsored by the FAO and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and had representatives from 16 Caribbean countries and three dependent territories, with USDA, United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture also represented.
One-off project
The FAO consultant also used the opportunity to urge regional states to take advantage of the one-off project now under way in which his organisation is helping them to repackage, export and destroy obsolete chemicals at no cost to the countries.
"We're trying to help clean up our legacy problem from the past where many countries have accumulated stocks of obsolete pesticides and it's very difficult for countries in this region to destroy or get rid of those chemicals in a safe and effective manner," argued Davis. "The important factor here is that this will only be done once, so that the countries and everybody - all the populations of the countries that use pesticides, have to ensure that in the future they don't create obsolete stocks. They only buy what they need and put in place systems that can help them to deal with hazardous waste in the future, and also that anybody that holds pesticides in their shed, on their farm right now, that they look through and they use this one-time opportunity to get rid of any obsolete stocks that they may have," the FAO consultant said.
One of the concerns highlighted at the meeting was the inadequacy of the legislation governing the importation, use and disposal of pesticides. The FAO consultant cited a need for an urgent review of these rules and regulations.
Said he: "Things have moved on in chemicals management, since a lot of the legislation in Caribbean countries was put in place in the 1970s. There have been a lot of developments and improved understanding about what works and what doesn't. There are new international agreements that deal with various aspects of chemicals management, so it's time really to do a review of where the legislation in each country stands; what can be updated and improved.
"Our organisation, FAO, can help with this because we have legal experts who have done this kind of work and who follow international developments. We are producing guidance that we make available to other countries, so we'd like to be able to help particularly those countries that either have no legislation in place today or the legislation dates from 30-plus years ago," explained Davis.