Paving the Way for Lower-risk Crop Protection: Biopesticide Regulatory Pathways
Krishak Jagat
2024.12.12
Biopesticides hold great promise for sustainable agriculture, but navigating the regulatory landscape can pose significant hurdles. A recent webinar, Paving the way for lower-risk crop protection: Regulatory pathways for the registration of biopesticides, hosted by CABI, brought together experts to discuss solutions for making biopesticides more accessible by addressing regulatory challenges. Addressing these challenges helps biopesticides reach the market more efficiently, ensuring farmers can access safer, lower-risk pest management options.
Treating biopesticides in the same way as synthetic pesticides creates hurdles without adding any real protection for human health or the environment. While some level of complexity in the registration process is unavoidable, given the technical nature of pesticide registration, current frameworks were often designed with synthetic pesticides in mind. This mismatch can make it harder for innovative, low-risk biopesticides to reach the market. This is evidenced in products like Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which must undergo extensive testing and toxicity requirements that don’t align with its minimal risk profile. These challenges highlight how outdated processes can slow progress in adopting safer, more sustainable pest control solutions.
As CABI’s Dr Melanie Bateman highlighted in her introduction to the webinar, “We are working toward alleviating regulatory barriers to enable safer pest management solutions.” Dr Bateman is the Global Team Leader for pesticide alternatives under PlantwisePlus’ pesticide risk reduction pathway.
Biopesticides hold great promise for sustainable agriculture, but navigating the regulatory landscape can pose significant hurdles. A recent webinar, Paving the way for lower-risk crop protection: Regulatory pathways for the registration of biopesticides, hosted by CABI, brought together experts to discuss solutions for making biopesticides more accessible by addressing regulatory challenges. Addressing these challenges helps biopesticides reach the market more efficiently, ensuring farmers can access safer, lower-risk pest management options.
Treating biopesticides in the same way as synthetic pesticides creates hurdles without adding any real protection for human health or the environment. While some level of complexity in the registration process is unavoidable, given the technical nature of pesticide registration, current frameworks were often designed with synthetic pesticides in mind. This mismatch can make it harder for innovative, low-risk biopesticides to reach the market. This is evidenced in products like Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), which must undergo extensive testing and toxicity requirements that don’t align with its minimal risk profile. These challenges highlight how outdated processes can slow progress in adopting safer, more sustainable pest control solutions.
As CABI’s Dr Melanie Bateman highlighted in her introduction to the webinar, “We are working toward alleviating regulatory barriers to enable safer pest management solutions.” Dr Bateman is the Global Team Leader for pesticide alternatives under PlantwisePlus’ pesticide risk reduction pathway.
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