1. 1Madrid, June 2012 Guidelines for Sustainable Use of Pesticides – Italy Dr. Maura Calliera - Catholic University of Piacenza OPERA Scientific Officer

2. 2Madrid, June 2012 Background -The normative context This project started in 2008 and was born in a context of great normative changes: ●Regulation 1107/2009 concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market (revision of Directive 91/414) ●Directive 128/2009 on the sustainable use of plant protection products ●Regulation 1185/2009 concerning statistics on the quantities released and used Evolution in the legislation: moved to a more global view of the problem, with the aim of ensuring sustainable development and thereby achieve a balance between technological development and protection of human health and environmental

3. 3Madrid, June 2012 From the beginning… In Italy the Catholic University of Piacenza, in collaboration with other stakeholders, started a project to assess the impact of the Directive 128/2009 at national level and to analyze the level of implementation of different measures included in the existing national legislation

4. 4Madrid, June 2012 From the beginning… ●Collaboration between many different actors working togheter for the development of a culture of sustainable use of pesticides ●Those actors are experts from the fields of agriculture, industry, regulators, academia: - Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore - Syngenta Crop Protection - Emilia-Romagna Region - Horta S.r.l.

5. 5Madrid, June 2012 From the beginning… The basic concept Scientific knowledge represents one of the key aspects for the design of new policies and the review of the existing one. The collaboration between different stakeholders helps to develop common views and to achieve solutions for practical and effective techniques, and increase the quality of the production and safe food with sustainable agriculture. The European Commission, in the Sixth Environmental Action Programme, underline this consideration and clearly ask for collaborative action and planning among different range of actors for a common understanding and interaction with decision-makers.

6. 6Madrid, June 2012 Three steps to develop a new tool Step 1 Preliminary Investigation Step 2 Guideline for a Sustainable Use of Plant Protection Products Step 3 Software

7. 7Madrid, June 2012 The screening phase ●The operative phase started from a screening phase based on a questionary submitted to 100 farmers ●Selected survey operators conducted a face to face questionnaire ●The test was composed of questions on: - pesticides trasport - conservation in a suitable place - efficiency check of machineries for pesticide application - label comprehension - pesticide treatment planning - application - machineries cleaning operations - waste products disposal

8. 8Madrid, June 2012 Project developement ●The data collected were analyzed with a statistical software and the output helped us to understand the topics which need to be deepened more ●The survey highlights that in Italy the implementation process of some measures is started even if more work is needed to achieve the directive objectives. ●The results identified a number of knowledge gaps and challenges that might be considered to prevent point source pollution at farm level and to mitigate the risk for humans and water contamination from farming operations.

9. 9Madrid, June 2012 The screening phase. ●The survey further indicate that due to the high geographical variability, farm structure and cropping pattern of Italy, farmers need specific sets of risk management tools, depending on their risk attitudes. ●After the data collection from questionaries and their analysis we understood that was important to develop an operative sustainable use guideline ●In the project evolution we decided to develop also a free online software to follow the technician to identify the current practices at farm level and for a rapid identification of crucial elements in the pesticide use

10. 10Madrid, June 2012 The Guidelines and the Directive The Directive 128 provide a series of actions including: ●"Development of procedures for the safe storage and handling of plant protection products, the preparation of the mixture, washing of containers and equipment after treatment, disposal of wastewater and packaging" ●Dissemination of guidelines on best practices of use of plant protection products

11. 11Madrid, June 2012 The Guidelines and the Directive The central idea is that, in order to achieve a sustainable use of plant protection products “all” must be aware of the risk to human health and the environment associated with the use of these products. With regard to professional users this will be achieved through a "proper training", while the population will be achieved through "appropriate communication material to raise awareness" In conclusion, the " training need " that emerges from the Sustainable Use Directive is based on the awareness of an underestimation of the risks to human health and the environment and the need to promote measures and practices to reduce these risks

12. 12Madrid, June 2012 Training role in the Directive Training has a key strategic role to achieve all the objectives that the Directive arises “The Member States must ensure that all professional users, distributors and advisers have access to "appropriate training by bodies designated by the competent authorities" (Article 5)

13. 13Madrid, June 2012 Pesticide Sustainable Use Guidelines Documents reference : what was already been set up at both national and European level Documents developed under the Project Life "Training the Operators to Prevent Pollution from Point Sources" named TOPPS (http://www.topps-life.org/web/page.asp.)http://www.topps-life.org/web/page.asp "The correct use of plant protection products. Guide to the license for the purchase of plant protection products in the Emilia-Romagna "(http://www.ermesagricoltura.it/Servizio-fitosanitario/Difesa-e-diserbodelle- piante/Guida-al-patentino-per-i-prodotti- PPP / The-correct-use-of-products-plant Protection) European legislation, national and local

14. 14Madrid, June 2012 Pesticide Sustainable Use Guidelines ●The guidelines are composed of an operative guide, a check list and of a free online software which help an efficient comprension of the main concepts ●They consider the main topics regarding the sustainable use which are: Purchase and Transport Conservation Treatment planning and mixture preparation Transport to application field Treatment making Cleaning and waste products disposal

15. 15Madrid, June 2012 Chapters 1. Purchase and transport 2. Conservation 3. Treatment planning and mixture preparation 4. Transport to application field 5. Treatment making 6. Cleaning and waste products disposal

16. 16Madrid, June 2012 Structure of each chapter Each chapter starts with : ●Key issues and priorities ●Flow chart that schematically shows the different choices or behaviors to be adopted ●Description of structural and behavioral aspects for a sustainable use of plant protection products In addition are provided : Technical annexes at the end of the "Guidelines“ Checklists that identify farm structural and behavioral critical points (separate volume)

17. 17Madrid, June 2012 Key issues and priorities Highlight key aspects of the chapter that need special attention

18. 18Madrid, June 2012 Flow chart facilitating the reading of each chapter and schematically shows the different choices or actions to be taken

19. 19Madrid, June 2012 Structural and behavioral perspective text and practical advice divided according to Structural features: equipment, facilities, etc.. which must be in the farm Behavioral features: attention, ways of working, etc.. that the user must follow

20. 20Madrid, June 2012 Simple and intuitive

21. 21Madrid, June 2012 Check-list In parallel with the guideline for each chapter a check list has been developed in order to assist the user in the analysis of the level of agricultural practices and to identify the critical points in the pesticide management to prevent environmental contaminations and to assure high standard of safety for operators Roma, 6 Luglio 2011

22. 22Madrid, June 2012 Check list The online checklist structure follows the guideline chapters; the user has to answer to several questions which cover the main topics of each chapter. Each question has a multi-choice set of answers which reflects the best practices described in the guideline. Compilation of a interactive check list on good agricultural practices for a sustainble use of pesticides STEP 1 Individuation of critical elements Data Elaboration STEP 2

23. 23Madrid, June 2012 Software on-line The software is available as a free online web-site (http://www.agricoltura-responsabile.it) and it provides two main sections: an hypertext version of the guideline and the online checklist to evaluate the current level of sustainable use of pesticide at a farm level.http://www.agricoltura-responsabile.it

24. 24Madrid, June 2012 Software on-line Results ●A set of thoughtful weight has been studied to discriminate each choice in order to build a set of indicators: one indicator for each guideline chapter and a cumulative one

25. 25Madrid, June 2012 Software on-line Results Results easy to read and suggestions

26. 26Madrid, June 2012 Aims ●Training, informing and updating professionals which interact with final pesticides users. It is a tool for train technicians and an operative guide to provide an innovative assistence service with the aim to improve the safe, responsible and sustainable use of pesticides ●Identify the critical elements in the product management to prevent environmental contaminations and to assure high standard of safety for operators ●Give instructions and suggestions in order to improve the best pesticide practices to minimize potential contamination risks

27. 27Madrid, June 2012 Conclusion … ●Effectiveness of the multidisciplinary team and external technical contributions in the success of the dossier "Guidelines" ●Importance of the form of communication that easily recalls the general concepts, the importance of "risk" and "best practices" ●This tool could be strategic in the Sustainable Use Directive context : It’s a simple tool to guarantee a sustainable, responsible and safe pesticides use It’s a tool for training the professional operators It can evaluate how the pesticides are managed in a specific farm It can underline critical point in the life cycle of pesticides It can suggest how to improve the pesticides management It can be useful also for Authorities: from a statistical to an economical point of view (i.e. economical subsidies)

28. 28Madrid, June 2012 Conclusion The approach adopted, taking into account the variability in farm structure, cropping pattern, risk attitude and economical availability, is more than an instrument to identify the most suitable protection strategy for a given crop in a given period, while helps professional users to make the most appropriate choices leading to a less environmental and human risk in a given situation without compromising the profitability of agricultural production and food standards

29. 29Madrid, June 2012 M. Calliera, E. Capri (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Piacenza), R. Bassi, A. Bernard, F. Berta (Syngenta Crop Protection S.p.A.) - T. Galassi, F. Mazzini, R. Rossi (Servizio Fitosanitario Regione Emilia Romagna) - P. Meriggi (Horta s.r.l.) Thanks for the attention …