As of October 2018, only agronomists can prescribe the use of agrochemicals. Until now, prescriptions could only reproduce what is predicted in the package inserts issued by manufacturers.
The decision was set out in an agreement signed between the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply (Mapa), Blairo Maggi, and the Federal Council of Engineering and Agronomy (Confea). “We empower agronomist engineers to prescribe the agrochemicals, they will also define the mixtures that can be made from these products. It was an old demand from professionals,” the minister said.
Luís Rangel, the Secretary of Agricultural and Livestock Defense for the Mapa, justified the decision by saying that before, technicians were “slaves to the recommendation of the industries. Today, revenues can be increased by technical knowledge, by bibliographical and scientific references available in the market, and in academic bibliographies. And the agronomist has a little more freedom to make recommendations, just as it is necessary for phytosanitary control.”
“With the cooperation agreement, we can move forward, give the agronomist what is right to him by the law that instituted his profession, which is to make the technical-based recommendation of the product used in the field,” added Rangel .
In addition to the mixture prepared in tanks before application in agriculture, it also passes to the responsibility of the agronomist,” using the knowledge they have.” According to the secretary, the measure also “takes away the shadow of an unintentional illicitness, the farmers. The practice was this because of the lack of technical responsibility in the recommendation. Obviously, the responsibility of Confea is to supervise the professional exercise “.
“Several products are used to optimize the process and there are risks of eventual mixing and creating chemical incompatibilities in the spray tank, precipitating a substance, clogging nozzles, and creating phytotoxicity, depending on the crop, in the way it is applied. And it is only the agronomist who really understands this subject, “he added.
Source: www.agropages.com
