United States-Canada Grower Priority Database

Intended for use by growers, registrants and regulators, the goal of the database is to provide a single point of access for growers on both sides of the border to identify and prioritize their needs. Wide use of the database is needed to ensure its success as a representative tool for stakeholders.

Growers had expressed their concerns to the North American Free Trade Agreement Technical Working Group on Pesticides (NAFTA TWG) about the technology gaps that can exist when an active ingredient for crop protection is registered in one country but not the other, and when the two countries have differing registered uses and/or maximum residue levels.

In response to these concerns, Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) assisted grower stakeholders in the compilation and prioritization of their crop protection needs. The original list was based on grower-identified priorities from programs such as the Project 914 Technology Gap, the minor use priority setting list (2008), priorities gathered through the joint Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)/Health Canada Pesticide Risk Reduction Program, and NAFTA commodity-based projects. The Canadian portion of the database also contains the pest and regulatory status for each grower-identified priority.

In March 2010, the PMRA funded the addition of Canadian priorities to the joint US-Canada Grower Priority Database along with US priorities, funded by a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant under the guidance of the US Minor Crop Farmers' Alliance. The PMRA has also contributed to making Canadian priorities available in both official languages on the Canadian Federation of Agriculture web site.

It is expected that the database will become a valuable source of information for US and Canadian growers, registrants and regulatory agencies:

• Growers can view complete US and Canadian data from a single access point, and indicate their priorities.
• Registrants can use it to identify opportunities for dialogue with growers leading to future business development.
• Regulators intend to use the database to better inform existing programs of grower-identified priorities.

Discussions are ongoing to develop a process to manage the information contained in the database to ensure it remains current.

For more information about Canadian grower priorities and access to the bilingual version of the database, consult the Canadian Federation of Agriculture's  Grower Priority Database.