Following the first international training workshop on the establishment of MRLs and residue risk assessment held last year in Budapest, Hungary, in collaboration with the Foreign Agricultural Service, United States Department of Agriculture, in 2011, AGPMC held other three regional training workshops on pesticide residue risk assessment and standard setting in Brazil, Ghana and Thailand.

The workshop for Latin America and the Caribbean was held in San Paulo, Brazil, from 16 to 20 May 2011. Twenty-one participants from twelve countries attended this training workshop. Participants came from Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Peru and Uruguay.

The training for the Africa region was held in Accra, Ghana, from 6 to 10 June 2011, and twenty-two participants attended it. Participants came from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zambia.

The training course for the Asia region was conducted in Bangkok, Thailand  on  8-12 August 2011. Twenty-six trainees from Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Korea, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam completed the training course.

These regional training workshops were held in order to respond to the requests of developing countries to play a greater role in the process of establishing international standard and to strengthen the capabilities of scientists from these countries in residue risk assessment for the establishment of MRLs and in evaluation of residue dossier for pesticide registration.

Most of the participants of the workshops were from pesticide regulatory authorities. The trainees were enthusiastic and joined in discussions, questions and team exercises whole-heartedly.They highly valued particularly the group exercises, which were extremely instructive and provided the opportunity for the trainees to see the complexities of pesticide residue evaluation. All the participants indicated that the workshop substantially expanded their views, improved their understanding of the complex subject, and they all believed that the knowledge and skills which they learned from the training will be helpful for their work  in the future.

As requested by member countries, in particular for developing countries, FAO has taken a series of activities including training workshops, revision of  the “FAO Manual on submission and evaluation of pesticide residues data for the estimation of maximum residue levels” and development of the “FAO Training Manual on the Evaluation of pesticide residues for maximum residue levels and calculation of dietary intake”.  These activities have been fully recognized by member countries as very important in strengthening the capabilities of scientists from developing countries in the techniques of pesticide evaluation for the establishment of MRLs and in updating their knowledge of the assessment of risks associated with dietary intake of pesticide residues for promoting food safety and international trade of agriculture products.