Over the next two days, a delegation of over 50 crop protection industry and
authority representatives together with farmers from various European countries
gather in Sinaia, Romania, for a conference on the safe and sustainable use of
pesticides.
Each year the conference is organised in one of the countries implementing
ECPA's European crop protection industry-initiated Safe Use Initiative (SUI) - a
program designed to provide farmers and operators with an easy to use toolbox to
successfully increase crop protection user safety. This year the conference has
been organised by AIPROM (The Romanian Crop Protection Association) together
with the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture.
Participants will have the opportunity to learn and exchange views and
experiences on all aspects of applying plant protection products in a safe and
sustainable way. The conference also includes a farm visit in the region, where
participants will have the chance to see the practical implementation of the SUI
principles.
"SUI has enjoyed continued success over the past years. "In Romania, the SUI
training manual produced by the AIPROM was endorsed with the logo of the
Romanian Ministry of Agriculture and University of Agronomy in Bucharest. This
will increase SUI awareness and hopefully have an enormous impact on farmer's
uptake of the recommendations" -said Yves Picquet, President of AIPROM.
In Slovakia, where the SUI program is also established, the Slovakian Crop
Protection's Association's video- guide comprising of 16 clips[1] on
how to properly use pesticides has been endorsed by the Slovakian Ministry of
Agriculture and is now the official video-manual from application techniques to
proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and disposal of the containers.
The SUI recommendations have not only been appreciated by European
authorities. In France, during the 2012 International Exhibition of Agriculture,
farmers awarded UIPP (The French Crop Protection Association) and partners for
its risk awareness campaign 'un tel outil de travail, ça se protège'.
"This campaign highlights not only one of the key elements of basic
Personal Protective Equipment, i.e. the need of gloves when handling crop
protection products, but also risk management and prevention on farm. We are
very proud to have received this award and of being positively recognized by the
farming community" - commented Jean-Charles Bocquet, the Director
General of UIPP.
"In the ten years that our network has been running the Safe Use
Initiative project we have seen a great impact and uptake of the
recommendations. Today we are running SUI it in 12[2]
countries and the intention is to share the SUI principles with all Member
States. Farmer and operator health is key, and the easy to apply measures of the
SUI contribute to a vibrant sustainable agriculture sector" -
Friedhelm Schmider, Director General of the European Crop Protection Association
(ECPA) concluded.
To download the press release please follow the link: http://www.ecpa.eu/news-item/human-health/06-11-2012/672/safe-and-sustainable-use-pesticides
Source: PR Newswire (http://s.tt/1ea6R)