Agricultural Food Crops

Health Canada, through the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA), works with agricultural food growers to help support their pest control product regulatory needs through a number of programs including the Pesticide Risk Reduction Program, North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Re-evaluation program, and programs associated with other government department and grower associations, such as the On-Farm Food Safety Recognition Program. In these programs PMRA works with stakeholders, including growers and their associations, researchers, processors, provincial government extension, private extension companies, other federal government departments and international governments, to support grower needs through a number of activities, including:

• Consultation with commodity specific stakeholders, such as agricultural grower groups, and national groups, such as the Canadian Horticultural Council, to develop an understanding of regulatory needs across commodity groups such as the need for new active ingredients, harmonization with trade partners and registration of alternative products for resistance management and to replace products lost through re-evaluation;
• Provision of comprehensive information on regulatory alternatives registered in Canada and other jurisdictions;
• Provision of technical expertise on the regulatory process and the registration status of products;
• Stakeholder consultations to facilitate the building of strategies for transition to lower risk products from key uses of products being lost through re-evaluation;
• Working with pesticide registrants to promote and facilitate applications for registration of reduced risk pest control products and to maximize the submission of minor use label expansions.

Agricultural food crops include all crops grown for food uses, such as berries, vegetables, cereals and legumes.

PMRA and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) have worked with the following commodity groups to identify priority issues:

Heath Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency welcomes your questions and comments.

Should you require further information please contact the Pest Management Information Service.

Additional Information

• Pesticide Registration Process
• North American Free Trade Agreement Technical Working Group on Pesticides

Related Resources

• Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada - Pesticide Risk Reduction Program site
• Canadian Food Inspection Agency - Food Safety Recognition Program
• Integrated Pest Management Institute of North America
• Grower Associations:
  • Canadian Horticulture Council
  • Pulse Canada
  • Canola Council of Canada
• Pesticide Registrant Associations:
  • Biopesticide Industry Alliance
  • CropLife Canada
• International Pesticide Risk Reduction Programs:
  • Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
  • United States Environmental Protection Agency - PestWise Program
  • Great Britain Health and Safety Executive
  • European Commission