Acting on the recommendations of the FAO Conference on Pesticides in Agriculture, which were endorsed at the second session of the FAO Committee of Experts on Pesticides in Agriculture, the Director-General of FAO established an FAO Working Party on the Official Control of Pesticides on 25 July 1963 under the provisions of the statutes of the FAO Committee of Experts on Pesticides in Agriculture.
The purpose and terms of reference of the Working Party were to advise and assist the Director-General on all matters related to the official control of pesticides including the production of specifications for pesticides used in agriculture analogous to those prepared by the World Health Organization (WHO) for public health purposes. In 1975, The Working Party was renamed the FAO Panel of Experts on Pesticide Specifications, Registration Requirements and Application Standards. (go to the list of specifications developed under the old procedure)
In 1996, a draft plan was prepared by the FAO Group on Specifications, to change the procedures by which specifications were developed and applied. Following extensive consultation and comments from interested parties, the procedures were adopted by the FAO Group at formal meetings in October 1998, held in Rome.
Specifications developed under the two procedures are superficially similar in appearance but have a very different basis. Specifications developed under the old procedure could be applied to any manufacturer’s product. Specifications developed under the new procedure apply only to the products of manufacturers whose data have been evaluated by the Group on Specifications. (go to the list of specifications developed under the new procedure)
In December 1999, the WHO Expert Committee on Vector Biology and Control recommended that FAO and WHO should use the same definitions nomenclatures, format and supporting methodologies for pesticide specifications. The Committee further recommended that WHO and FAO should develop joint specifications for technical materials (TC) and technical concentrates (TK) for those pesticides used in both public health and agricultural applications. In May 2000, the proposal was recommended for adoption by the FAO Panel of Experts.
In consequence, to facilitate harmonization of specifications development, in 2001, WHO and FAO signed a Memorandum of Understanding to implement the recommendations and to enable the expert committees of FAO and WHO to work together. When working together, the two expert committees will be known as the FAO/WHO Joint Meeting on Pesticides Specifications (JMPS) and the first full meeting of the JMPS was held in Rome in June, 2002.
The 1st edition of the Manual on development and use of FAO/WHO Specifications for Pesticides was published in 2002. A Spanish version of the first edition was published in 2004 and a Chinese version was published in 2005.
In November 2005, FAO and WHO organized a consultation with members of the JMPS and other experts to form a revised 1st edition of the Manual. The revision was agreed by JMPS members and, in February 2006, was adopted by FAO and WHO for publication on their websites. (go to the Manual on development and use of FAO/WHO Specifications for Pesticides page)
