The 11th FAO/WHO Joint Meeting on Pesticide Management (JMPM) was held in Rome, Italy, at the FAO Headquarters on 9-12 October 2018, gathering international pesticide experts from FAO, the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Environment (UN Environment), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and observers from the civil society and pesticide industry. All JMPM participants also joined a UN Environment consultative meeting on the preparation of a report on the environmental and health impacts of pesticides and fertilizers and ways of minimizing them, together with additional experts on pesticides and fertilizers invited by UN Environment.

A number of new technical guidelines complementing the FAO/WHO International Code of Conduct on Pesticide Management (the Code) were reviewed by the JMPM, in particular on the topics of: personal protection when handling and applying pesticides; household pesticides; inspection of pesticide importers, producers, distributors and retailers; and licensing of pesticide distributors and retailers. The need for revising existing guidelines was also discussed in the meeting, in particular the guidelines on monitoring and observance of the Code, guidelines on data requirements for the registration of pesticides, guidelines on good labelling practice for pesticides, and guidelines on good practice for aerial application of pesticides.  The meeting agreed to consider cross-cutting issues when developing or revising guidelines, such as climate change, gender, risk communication, awareness (“right to comprehend”), low risk management options (IVM, IPM, agroecology, etc.), illegal and counterfeit pesticides, nanomaterials/nano pesticides, etc.

The meeting was informed of activities on biological pesticides by governments, industry and NGOs, in particular in light of the recently published FAO/WHO guidelines and of the development of guidelines for fast track registration of biopesticides for fall army worm. Experts exchanged views on new and emerging issues of interest for international pesticide management such as antimicrobial resistance, consideration of chronic toxicity (e.g. reproductive toxicity) into labelling, proposal for a new programme on pesticide compliance and enforcement, and addressing risks during pesticide phase-out.  The JMPM recommended starting the process for revising the Code to take into account recent developments and making sure this voluntary framework is still up to date and reflects current international policies.

The meeting recommended that UN Environment be invited to join the JMPM as a full member for pesticide management activities. This is very important in order to fully consider the environmental aspects in pesticide management that would complement the perspective provided by FAO on agricultural policies and WHO on public health pesticide management.

The JMPM serves an advisory body to FAO and WHO and the JMPM panel members and observers play a key role in supporting the implementation of the Code of Conduct thus contributing to more sustainable practices in agriculture and in public health.