GRDC explains how crop protection products get registered in Australia: the process is science-based, checking safety for humans, the environment, and crops, plus whether they actually work. GRDC helps smaller grain crops by funding safety and efficacy studies to expand registrations. Australia's small market means new products often arrive late and companies invest less here.
Chapters
Today we're talking about chemical regulation in Australia. What is the registration process for crop protection products in Australia?
Nick? I guess you could sum that up simply by saying the process is very much science based. It's a lot of science, a lot of research and it's about ensuring that those products, once registered and applied in accordance with the label, are safe. Safe to the environment, safe to humans, the users, and obviously safe to our crops and efficacious. They've got to do the job that we want them to.
And does GRDC have a role in this at all?
We do. Obviously there's big companies involved here and it's an extremely expensive process and long term process. So one of the roles that GRDC has is then partnering with those companies to look at the smaller crops and the smaller uses that may not be financially attractive to those companies, but those producers still very much need help with their crop protection choices and products availability.
And how common is that? Does it happen a lot?
It does, very much so. I mean GRDC has got 25 level crops which you'd be well aware of. And outside of the big eight or nine, wheat and canola and barley, all the other ones are quite minor and not particularly attractive. So we do need to help by combining our efforts with the companies to give growers worthwhile and effective solutions.
And is that sort of working with known chemistry that's actually maybe in another crop, registered in another crop and then trying to bring it across and try and expand that registration?
Very much so, yeah, that's what we're doing. So the products have to be registered in Australia, which deals with all the environmental issues and other things. And then we look at, okay, yeah, it might be a horticultural product that's not in grains, but it's a great solution for lentils or peanuts, some of these smaller crops. So yeah, it's about taking known products, known compounds that are registered in Australia and doing the work about residues, crop safety and efficacy to then expand their use.
And so it was a grower based sort of idea and I guess not so much in a lobbying sense, but if growers sort of deemed or did some research or found out there was no chemistry needed or they looked at other products that were used in other countries, where would that sort of fit and how would they sort of approach the grdc or is there any place for growers to sort of come and bring ideas forward to grdc?
There's always the opportunity for growers to bring, bring ideas and concerns to GRDC and there's several mechanisms and One of them that most growers would hopefully be aware of is the National Grower Network and those regional meetings that are held. The ideal opportunity to discuss these needs and say, hey, I. I'm seeing this problem more and more often and I don't have an effective solution. We need help or approaching any GRDC staff. And most of those requests end up on my desk as the chem reg manager. But then we're going to look at those requests and prioritise them and other alternatives and what may not be needed. It's challenging, though, when somebody says, oh, this is registered overseas, just bring it to Australia. It's not that simple and there's a lot of stuff, science required there in spaces that GRDC cannot invest around toxicology and that sort of thing. And that's the registrant's domain and we really need the registrant to have brought it to the country first and then we can work on expanding the use patterns domestically.
And I guess Australia is sort of a unique landscape, you know, for agriculture. We're a very. We're not subsidised. It's a very low margin base. I'm thinking more so probably broad acre cropping in this instance. But I guess, you know, that would certainly, you know, can cause, you know, some concern for chemical companies trying to invest in new products because obviously they've got such a short time window to actually get back, recoup their cost from any new registration and any new molecules coming onto the market. So does it. Does sort of Australia sort of look on that world stage? Maybe not so, I guess, not so attractive for investment in that space? Dead right.
We're not particularly attractive. We are sort of at the end of the life cycle of products. Products go into Europe, they go into North America, they go into soybean, rice and maize, predominantly because that's what recoups my financial investment in getting them registry. And almost as an afterthought, Australia is considered, which does make it hard, it makes it very hard to attract new compounds. But again, we could potentially partner with a registrant when they say, well, yes, we're going to come to Australia, but we're only going to register it in wheat. And we may say, yeah, but we need it in barley and trit and oats or we need it in canola. No, no, we're not going to do it because there's no financial return. Right? That's how do we partner, how do we incentivise and more. So how do we incentivise you to approach Australia more quickly with that process by helping you once it's in Australia.
What are the long term goals of supporting crop protection products in Australia?
I guess to really simply state the long term goal is to give growers viable efficacy options to control the threats and needs that they have in a way that protects the environment, protects our crops, protects human health and protects trade so that we actually have solutions that are acceptable to everybody.
