The Application of PRIMET For Pesticide Registration and Monitoring in Ethiopia

Abstract

<title>Abstract</title> <p>Pesticide registration is an activity often not supported with proper risk assessment procedures in developing countries like Ethiopia. In this study, we tried the PRIMET (Pesticide Risks in the Tropics for Man, Environment and Trade), a tool developed to assess the risks to non-target protection goals believed to assist the pesticide registration and monitoring activities in Ethiopia. For this study, seven pesticides (<italic>imdacloprid, difenoconazole, metalaxyl, dimethoate, thiamethoxam, nicosulfuron and bupirimate)</italic> were selected randomly and their data of physico-chemical characteristics, toxicological information and pesticide use were mined from either the information given on the dossier or PPDB (Pesticides Properties Database). Results indicated that <italic>imidacloprid</italic>, <italic>dimethoate</italic> and <italic>thiamethoxam</italic> are highly risky to bees when bee hives are present inside the field of the sprayed crop, while <italic>Thiamethoxam</italic> is highly risky at when hives are present in and off field crop situation. Another outcome was that <italic>imidacloprid</italic> and <italic>dimethoate</italic> are expected to have high acute risk for birds, while <italic>difenoconazole, metalaxyl, dimethoate</italic> showed high acute and chronic risks to the aquatic ecosystem, respectively. Future studies should give emphasis on how the results of risk assessment can be practical to help the registration processes and how the results are compared with actual measurement values.</p>