The Pesticide Risk Reduction (PRR) team of Agriculture and Agri-food Canada's (AAFC) Pest Management Centre (PMC) focuses on developing and implementing reduced risk solutions for pest management issues that have been identified by growers. Risk reduction involves helping growers to adopt an integrated approach to managing pests and by doing so reducing reliance on traditional pesticides.
PRR develops and maintains Crop profiles, and creates a framework through which stakeholders, including growers, grower organizations, pest management experts and others, develop and implement Pesticide risk reduction strategies. Strategies aim to provide reduced-risk tools, including Biopesticides, to growers, and to encourage the adoption of alternative pest management approaches, practices and technologies.
These alternative tools and approaches may include the use of resistant varieties, crop rotation, and best management practices to reduce or avoid pest infestations, monitoring the level of pest infestations to determine when intervention is needed, and use of new physical, biological, or chemical control methods. The strategy may also point out needs for further research and development of integrated pest management approaches.
Objectives
The PMC is committed to improving grower access to low-risk, environmentally and economically sustainable pest control tools and practices. Within this mandate, the PRR team works to reduce the risks to the environment posed by the use of pesticides in agriculture.
To achieve this objective, PRR engages with grower groups, industry, provinces, and researchers to identify gaps in pest management and opportunities for pesticide risk reduction, and to develop and implement strategies to address these gaps. Specifically, the PRR team:
- Coordinates strategy discussions and brings together key players to identify pest management issues and solutions
- Implements research, development and demonstration projects
- Encourages development and adoption of reduced risk alternatives
- Provides regulatory assistance to industry collaborators
- Develops and disseminates information on reduced risk pest management options
Success of the Integrated Pest Management projects is tracked and the current pest management situation for individual crops is updated in the respective Crop profiles.
Contact Information
For more information about Pesticide Risk Reduction, please contact the Pest Management Centre.