About the evaluation
- The evaluation assessed the relevance and performance of the Pesticide Risk Reduction Program, focussing on results achieved from April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2017 in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and economy.
- Multiple lines of evidence were used (including a document review, secondary data analysis, a stakeholder survey, and interviews) to assess program activities.
Pesticide Risk Reduction Program description
- The Pesticide Risk Reduction Program is a joint initiative of AAFC's Pest Management Centre and Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency .
- The PRRP focuses on developing and disseminating reduced risk solutions for pest management issues that have been identified as priorities by stakeholders
- AAFC works with Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency, the industry and the provinces to increase the availability and adoption of reduced risk tools and practices to control pests in agriculture.
What we found
Relevance
- The Program fills an ongoing need to develop and implement pesticide risk reduction strategies and improve access to reduced-risk pesticides for agricultural use, helping Canadian growers compete in the global market.
- The Program is aligned with the AAFC priority to support an environmentally sustainable agriculture sector.
- The Program supports the development and implementation of pesticide risk reduction strategies that Canada's pesticide industry or the provinces would not undertake on their own.
Performance
- The Program successfully delivered expected outputs and met or exceeded most output targets. Program strengths include an effective needs identification and priority setting process, and good collaboration and engagement with both research scientists and stakeholders.
- Through the Program, stakeholders have an increased awareness of pest resistance and mitigation approaches. Awareness could be improved with increased demonstration trials and interactions with grower associations.
- The Program has had a positive impact on the adoption of safer pest management practices and products. Measuring adoption of safer pest management practices and products is not built into the Program.
- The Program has had a positive impact on resistance management and improvements in crop protection practices.
- The Program has contributed to improved sustainability and competitive parity of the Canadian agri-food sector.
- The program activities are an economical means of delivering desired outputs; the Program remained within budget in each of the five years examined while output targets were met or exceeded.
Design and delivery
- The priority setting process to select projects annually is viewed as grower-driven and collaborative, although some priorities are less well-substantiated.
- The Program facilitates a collaborative process ensuring a focus on the highest priority pesticide risk reduction issues. Often the Program partners with grower groups or other external stakeholders to conduct work aimed at promoting adoption of risk reduction strategies.
- The Program activities are an economical and efficient means of delivering desired outputs and achieving desired outcomes.
Recommendation
Recommendation 1:
The Assistant Deputy Minister, Science and Technology Branch, should review the Pesticide Risk Reduction Program logic model and the associated performance measures to:
- Assess program contribution to the achievement of outcomes and ensure outcome statements are measurable; and
- Create targets that more accurately reflect activity levels and future program aspirations.
Management response:
The Pest Management Centre (PMC) will:
- The Pest Management Centre (PMC) will work with Strategic Policy Branch's Research and Analysis Directorate to determine how best to collect the data to report on outcomes.
- Review the logic model and targets to take into account anticipated resourcing and changes in how the work, in particular biopesticides work, is being conducted.