“…due to the lack of agronomists throughout the ministry, it is difficult to say that this competition will make up for the lack of these professionals…”
Tatiane Almeida do Nascimento is head of the Formulated Product Registration Division at the Agricultural Defense Secretariat of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply of Brazil – MAPA, an agronomist, and federal agricultural tax auditor.
Tatiane Almeida, head of the Formulated Product Registration Division at MAPA
AgriBrasilis – Pesticides Law No. 14,785 was approved on 12/28/2023. In practical terms, what has changed?
Tatiane Almeida – The governance of the registry is the responsibility of the Ministry of Agriculture, but health and environmental agencies remain responsible for their respective areas.
AgriBrasilis – The law establishes 360 days to adapt to the new devices. What should be regulated?
Tatiane Almeida – It is worth clarifying that the law is already in force and all its provisions are being regulated. The 360-day deadline is for users to adapt to the new devices and is also the deadline for SISPA, a unified system for registering pesticides, to be implemented.
“Most errors occur due to lack of documents and the delay depends on each company being able to present documents that already contain specifications in standards”
AgriBrasilis – You said that the lack of employees has reduced the speed of approving pesticides. In addition to the single protocol system, what is being done to alleviate this problem? Will hiring be carried out?
Tatiane Almeida – A public competition is scheduled to hire Federal Agricultural Tax Auditors (AFFA), but, due to the lack of agronomists throughout the ministry, it is difficult to say that this competition will make up for the lack of these professionals. Temporary hiring of professionals with training in chemistry has already been carried out, to overcome the liability of chemical products that are in the analysis queue.
AgriBrasilis – How should the single protocol system work?
Tatiane Almeida – It will be a system as provided for in Law 14,785/2023, in which companies will be able to request product registration. In this system, MAPA, Ibama, and Anvisa will have access to studies and carry out their analyses.
AgriBrasilis – What are the most frequent errors in registration processes? How much does this delay the completion of the process evaluation?
Tatiane Almeida – Most errors occur due to lack of documents and the delay depends on each company being able to present documents that already contain specifications in standards. This time can vary from a week to a year, depending on the company.
AgriBrasilis – What MAPA actions aim to accelerate the registration of organic and low-risk products?
Tatiane Almeida – Last year, we updated the registration standard for pesticides of microbiological origin. We are finalizing the Ordinance that will regulate the registration of phytochemical products, which are those of plant origin, including algae.
AgriBrasilis – What are the differences in the registration procedure for biological products versus chemical ones?
Tatiane Almeida – We always try to adapt the need for studies for each group of products according to their origin. Therefore, toxicological and ecotoxicological studies are appropriate for each type. Biological products, as they have a lower impact, are treated with priority over chemical ones. Efficacy studies for both types of products are the same.