The flow chart below shows a indicative decision making process. There is no definitive order in which the various aspects of decision making should be assessed, but the flow chart provides for many cases a logical order of the decision making steps for pesticide registration. Nonetheless, in some cases steps may need to be swapped; in other cases steps can be omitted or may be assessed several times in an iterative manner. The flow chart should therefore not be used in an absolute manner.

A presupposition to a positive decision for the registration of a pesticide is that it is efficacious for the intended use (e.g. crop-pest combination) and that Good Agricultural Practice(s) (i.e. directions for use) have been established.
Pesticide efficacy evaluation is described elsewhere.

A suggested principle for decision making is that no impediment for registration of a pesticide exists if:

1. the pesticide is efficacious; and
2. the pesticide does not pose an unacceptable risk to human health or the environment; and
3. the pesticide does not compromise agronomic sustainability.

Alternatively, the registration of a pesticide is generally denied if:

1. the pesticide is not efficacious; or
2. the pesticide does pose an unacceptable risk to human health and the environment; or 
3. the pesticide compromises agronomic sustainability; and
4. alternatives (pesticide or non-pesticide) are available.

In some situations where risks are in principle unacceptable, a pesticide may still be registered. This can be the case if there is an emergency need for the pesticide and no appropriate alternatives are available. In such a case, the pesticide might be registered with the explicit acceptance of the expected risk by all responsible authorities (i.e., As a rule, such a registration should only be issued for specific uses and be temporary, to allow further data collection, risk assessment under actual conditions of use, and proper registration.

Interactive Decision Tree