Vietnam to draft new regulation on insecticides use

Advertisements for insecticides and trade promotions for their sale will be banned to help curb the misuse of pesticides, according to a new draft circular by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

The draft circular on insecticide management was drawn up to replace its previous version issued last year. The new regulation is expected to be put into effect this coming April, said director of MARD's Plant Protection Department Nguyen Xuan Hong.

The information was announced during an international meeting held in Ha Noi yesterday by MARD and international organisations. The meeting aimed at searching for measures to curb the abuse of insecticides in rice cultivation in Asia.

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has called for a ban on certain insecticides in rice production as part of its new Action Plan to reduce plant hopper damage to the rice crop in Asia, including Viet Nam.

Dr Bas Bouman, head of the Crop and Environmental Sciences Division at IRRI and leader of the Global Rice Sciences Partnership programme on sustainable production systems, said: "We need to seriously rethink our current pest management strategies so we do not just cope with current outbreaks but prevent and manage them effectively in the long run."

The MARD draft circular was written after research showed that when insecticides were misused, they could cause pest problems like the outbreak of brown plant hoppers, as the pests had became immune to the insecticide, he said.

"Moreover, insecticide was recently advertised widely, causing some farmers to forget the modern manufacturing processes they had been trained in," said Hong.

In 2006, the country experienced severe outbreaks of the brown plant hopper, which transmits yellow dwarf disease and ragged stunt disease to rice, causing heavy damage to rice production in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta.

In 2007, Viet Nam had to suspended rice exports because of losses caused by plant hoppers, he said.

The new circular also requires enterprises to re-evaluate any products which are reported to be substandard in order to phase-out insecticides that are highly toxic to humans, ecological services, aquatic organisms and the environment, said Hong. The new circular sets a higher technological standard for new registered insecticides to prevent toxic products from entering the country.

Another addition to the new circular is strict punishments for entities who spray in the tillering stage, or those that spray organic phosphate, carbamate, synthetic Pyrethoide or a mixture of these groups on rice seedlings during their first 40 days of growth.

"We encourage farmers to use more bio-pesticides, biological controls and pesticides with low toxicity following the four rights – using the right chemical, the right dose, the right timing and the right target," he said.

With help from IRRI, Thailand banned the use of two insecticides from rice – abamectin and cypermethrin – just three months ago because they are known to be major causes of plant hopper outbreaks.

In March, Viet Nam's southern province of An Giang began adopting ecological engineering practices such as growing flowers in nearby paddies to nurture predators of plant hoppers.

Dr K L Heong, an insect ecologist at IRRI, said: "It's a first step and there's a lot more to do, but openness to change is nothing new to Viet Nam".