Harmonised regulatory crop safeguards urged for AEC

But if a harmonised regulatory framework for crop-protection products is put in place within the region, the farmers, national economies, food/feed stakeholders, and end-users of Thailand and Asean stand to gain even more. 

Harmonisation in this area can reduce complexity in trade; enhance farmers’ access to quality, legitimate technologies; increase research investment; and build more shared regulatory capacity. 

For these reasons, the crop-protection industry of Asia strongly supports the inclusion of regulatory harmonisation in the Asean Economic Community (AEC). By unleashing the potential of the nation’s agriculture sector through reducing redundancy; leveraging the regulatory competency among Asean member states; minimising waste of critical resources; and expediting the testing and review processes for new products. 

The desire to help farmers and better enable their success is a prevalent sentiment in Thailand – and rightly so. Asean regulatory harmonisation for crop-protection products will put the nation’s and region’s farmers first, by ensuring their access to the latest technology and innovations in crop protection; defending them against poor quality, illegal and/or counterfeit pesticides that can harm the environment and reduce crop yields; and facilitating trade through the adoption of a uniform quality standard. 

Helping Thailand’s farmers, who are increasingly competing with not only their counterparts in neighbouring countries but those from around the world, should also include helping them find sustainable solutions in the face of harsh weather conditions that are taking a toll. 

Worsening droughts and storms and rising sea levels continue to threaten Thailand’s agricultural output. According to a recent report, rainfall in this country has been below average since 2009, resulting in droughts, which are associated with lower yields and increased pest and disease infestation.

While Thai farmers and their peers throughout Asean are considered among the world's best at what they do, they collectively face tremendous headwinds. We have a shared responsibility to help them find safe and sustainable agricultural solutions in the face of worsening environmental realities, disease, and pests. 

Providing a harmonised regulatory framework in Asean for crop-protection products will go a long way in ensuring our farmers are equipped with the 21st-century tools and technology they need to meet these challenges and deliver agricultural sustainability and food security across the region.

Of course, good conservation and stewardship of resources isn’t a pursuit that should be limited to the environmental realm. Realising a harmonised regulatory framework for crop-protection products in Asean would also ensure sharing of the regulatory capacity, knowledge, best practices and data among the member states to deliver uniform and high quality standards of products. This would help make certain that regulatory costs, redundancy, and waste are minimised. 

More efficient registration of new products helps reduce the costs to the region’s governments – and ultimately mitigates barriers to trade. This is made possible by leveraging competence among Asean member states through the mutual acceptance of data for product registration and providing incentives that encourage investments in research and development for crop protection within Asean. 

The regulatory harmonisation of crop-protection products is an essential component to the future success of agricultural trade, robust economic growth, and food security within Thailand and the Asean Community.

 

Dr Siang Hee Tan is executive director of CropLife Asia.