Plant protection in South America
Since 1980, international cooperation in Plant Protection in the southern part of South America is in the hands of an ad-hoc Technical Committee for Plant Health in the Southern Zone (Comité tecnico ad-hoc en sanidad vegetal para la zona sur). This Committee is composed of the Heads of Plant Protection Services of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, and chaired by Ir M. Boroukhovitch, Subdirector-General de Servicios Agronomicos, Ministerio de Agricultura y Pesca, Montevideo.
The Technical Secretary of the Committee is Dr Federico Carlos Meyer, Plant Health Specialist of IICA (the Interamerican Institute for Agricultural Science) for the Southern Area, also based in Montevideo. The Committee works independently, but in close association with IICA which has a hemispheric program in Plant Protection covering most of the countries of the American continent. The program is carried out in four areas (North, Andean, Antillean and South), and the Director is Dr Federico Dao Dao, based in IICA, Coronado, San José, Costa Rica.
The Committee is taking up the responsibilities of CIPA (Comité Interamericano de Proteccion Agricola), which has been inactive since 1973.
The aims of the Committee are to promote cooperation between countries and international organizations in question relating to:
i) Plant Health, particularly plant quarantine measures;
ii) Control of plant pests;
iii) Pesticide residues;
iv) Phytosanitary regulations;
v) Training
vi)·Technical assistance and information exchange.
The Committee is planned to meet twice a year, once independently and once in association with the annual IICA conference. Reports of these meetings are published, and various technical publications are planned (notably abstracts of the phytosanitary regulation of the five Member Countries), Regular information exchange with EPPO and other regional organizations is envisaged.
Sources
Uruguay