Ministry of Agriculture will be solely responsible for pesticide registration in Brazil

The Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Supply (Mapa) will now have exclusive competence for pesticide registration, environmental control products, and related items. The country's Parliament decided on the evening of Thursday, May 9, 2024.

Lawmakers rejected the vetoes placed by the President of the Republic, Lula da Silva, on the new Brazilian Pesticide Law, Law 14.785 of 2023. The Brazilian Executive Branch wished to maintain the model of registration and control of agrochemicals adopted in Brazil since 1989. Under the previous process, the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) and the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) could also prevent the registration of products.

This centralization, explained the winning lawmakers, aims to "speed up the process and avoid the division of responsibilities among different agencies, without compromising the technical competencies of Anvisa and Ibama."

Another item that will come into force again, with the veto being overturned, provides that Mapa may grant requests for registration of products based on an active ingredient under reevaluation until their reassessment is completed. The government argued that this provision violates the precautionary principle, putting at risk the rights to life, health, and an ecologically balanced environment. Furthermore, the decision also includes the continuation of the registration of products already under reassessment, using risk analysis as the main criterion.

President Lula da Silva vetoed 17 items, but Congress overturned the veto on eight of them and postponed the analysis of the remaining ones. Federal Deputy Pedro Lupion played a prominent role, along with other lawmakers, in ensuring, according to him, "the rights for rural producers, as well as promoting the economic and social development of the agricultural sector and Brazil."

Pedro Lupion

"Our fight is for a country that is increasingly better and more egalitarian, with a strong agricultural sector that is a protagonist worldwide," Lupion said. The goal, according to him, is to guarantee the population the food and legal security that everyone seeks and deserves. "The overturns bring about the streamlining and modernization of the proposals," justified the lawmaker.