European cooperation for minor uses

In November the EU Minor Uses Coordination Facility (MUCF) organized several expert meetings in Dublin. Plantum participated in the Commodity Expert Group (CEG) Seeds, which also had a collective section with the CEG Fruits & Vegetables and in the Horizontal Expert Group. Below is the report.

The MUCF started more than two years ago to jointly tackle bottlenecks in crop protection at the European level for so-called minor uses (minor applications or also specialty crops). In cooperation with as many as possible Member States of the European Union (chemical and non-chemical) solutions are sought. This for example can be done by:

The Horizontal Expert Group mainly consists of 'regulators' and focuses on development and European harmonized application of regulations tailored to minor uses. In the CEGs there are more experts from the business community (eg producer organizations) and researchers. They present the bottlenecks in their sector and work on practical solutions through projects. The CEG Seeds, originating from a Working Group Minor Uses of the European Seed Association (ESA), focuses on crop protection bottlenecks in seed treatment and seed production.

In the November meeting, CEG Seeds has once again updated its overview with priorities for minor uses in seed production and seed treatment, in particular for vegetable seeds. In seed production the growth control (in particular the availability of products to cause an accelerated dying of seed crop), weed and disease control are the most important issues. With seed treatment, the possibilities for protection against various germ and soil fungi are limited. Also the possibilities of giving crop protection against lice and flies (including onion fly, carrot fly and cabbage fly) through seed treatment are becoming increasingly limited. Because this ultimately is not so much a 'seed problem' as a 'cultivation problem', this will also be discussed and addressed jointly with the CEG Fruits & Vegetables.

The CEG Seeds notes that problems are becoming more acute because the authorization of many active substances is under pressure and hardly any new substances (chemical or biological) are added. Regulations are complicated and costs for development and authorization of new substances are high. In this context, it is particularly difficult to interest the (chemical and biological) crop protection industry in the development and registration of products in the minor and very specific uses for seeds and seed cultivation. The CEG Seeds tries to join forces and with the support of the MUCF, to show the potential of the seed market to the industry, and to develop workable admission procedures with and for them. With the now available priority overview, various potential providers of solutions will be approached again.

Although there is a European Regulation for the authorization of plant protection products, including an article on minor uses, the interpretation of this article differs considerably from one Member State to another. The MUCF has made an inventory last year, which showed that there are major differences in, for example, the definition of a minor uses (such as the used acreage limit), the file requirements, the national procedure for admission and the costs thereof. These differences cause an uneven playing field and it is difficult to adopt each other's approvals. The Horizontal Expert Group is now working on the development of a Guidance Document for minor applications, which will be presented to the European Commission.

The MUCF addresses the specific bottlenecks and wishes from minor uses, also in the context of the evaluation and possible revision of the EU legislation, currently in progress (the so-called REFIT). The MUCF also is developing tools to promote European cooperation, such as EU Minor Uses Database EUMUDA.