ICAMA held a Rap Session on Safe Pesticide Use in Fruits and Vegetables in Yantai City of Shandong Province on August 28-30th, 2013.
As one of the activities to implement the
Action Plan of Safe Pesticide Use in Vegetables and Specialty Crop Production (Action Plan), the Rap Session discussed pesticides use in fruits and vegetables for the purpose of furthering official review of trade-related
technical measures on pesticides.
Ji Ying, Chief Agronomist of ICAMA, Yang Lijian, DG of Shandong ICA and Wang Kuiliang, DDG of Yantai Agriculture Bureau attended and addressed the Rap Session. Dr. Zhang Hongjun, director of Codex Alimentarius Secretariat Office of ICAMA chaired the meeting.
At the meeting, some participants made presentations on fruits and vegetables production, pesticides use in fruits and vegetables in Shandong Province and understanding safe pesticides use. They also had intensive discussion on the impact of excessive pesticides residue presence on export, status quo and problems of pesticides use in fruits and vegetables.
Chief Agronomist Ji Ying stressed the importance of safe pesticide use in specialty
crops including fruits and vegetables, briefed about main activities and countermeasures to be taken for the Action Plan. She pointed out that few pesticides were registered for specialty crops, which is an issue of social concern and urgently need to be addressed.
Shandong is a major pesticide producer and consumer, and a major exporter of agri-products including specialties, thus it is more important to secure safe pesticides use. She urged concerted efforts from relevant departments in participation in pesticides development. Besides public investment, enterprises are encouraged to invest in pesticides R&D to boost the registration of more pesticides specialized for fruits, vegetables and specialty crops.
Wu Yayu, DDG of Shandong provincial ICA, Lin Jiancai, DDG of Yantai Agri-tech Extension and Service Center and Qiu Dongxiao, DG of Yantai ICA attended the Rap Session. There were also 30 more participants, representing five pesticide manufacturing enterprises, two agri-products traders and technicians working at grass-roots.
Participants had a field study to a vegetable garden, a cherry plantation and a mushroom production base to get the first-hand information on pesticides use and pesticides residue control.
(Source: Codex Alimentarius Secretariat Office, ICAMA)