Minor use permits for the sweetpotato industry

The Hort Innovation Sweetpotato Fund supports the submission of applications for new and renewed minor use permits for the industry, as well as data generation activities to support chemical permits and registrations, and strategic agrichemical reviews. Together these efforts provide industry access to safe, relevant and effective chemicals for the management of pests, weeds and diseases.

Current minor use permits

Why minor use permits?

Even as pest management practices and the crop protection marketplace change – being influenced by a range of factors, from environmental considerations to consumer demands – growers of horticultural crops require access to safe and effective chemicals for strategic use. But sometimes a lack of access to registered crop protection products can be encountered.

The problem may be that while a relatively small crop area is valuable in an agricultural sense, it may not be of sufficient size for agrichemical companies to justify the expense of registering a product use on that crop. Alternately, the disease, pest, or weed problem may be regional or spasmodic, meaning agrichemical companies are less inclined to bear the initial high cost of registering a suitable chemical product.

Enter minor use permits. The APVMA’s national permit system adds some flexibility to the approval process and provides a legal framework to allow growers access to products for ‘minor use’ purposes.

The Sweetpotato Fund project Sweetpotato industry minor use program (PW18002) facilitates the submission of renewals and applications for these minor use permits as required.

What about pesticide data generation?

The generation of pesticide residue, efficacy and crop safety data is required to support label registration and minor use permit applications that are made to the APVMA. Hort Innovation’s data generation work is supported by assistance grants, which Hort Innovation seeks on behalf of industry through the Australian Government’s Access to Industry Uses of Agricultural and Veterinary (AgVet) Chemicals program.

Details on data generation investments relevant to the sweetpotato industry can be found in the Your investments section of this website, or by using the ‘Related projects’ section of this page.

Related information and resources

Strategic Agrichemical Review Processes (SARPs)

SARP reports are funded by Hort Innovation to investigate pest problems, agrichemical usage and pest management alternatives for horticulture industries across Australia. The results provide a clear view of gaps in existing pest control options, and are intended to assist each industry with agrichemical selection and usage into the future – that is, they provide direction for the industry to pursue for chemical registrations with agrichemical companies, or minor use permits with the APVMA.

The current SARP report for the sweetpotato industry is available to download here. It was released in 2014.

This report is not a comprehensive assessment of all pests and control methods used in the industry, but attempts to prioritise the major problems.

Ag Chemical Updates

Hort Innovation distributes Ag Chemical Updates for the Australian horticulture industry, as part of the project Regulatory support and coordination (pesticides) (MT20007) and formerly, Regulatory support and coordination (pesticides) (MT17019). These updates provide information on any developments in regulatory oversight of relevant chemicals, and are an opportunity for industry to consider and develop responses to issues arising from actions proposed that may impact on grower ability to access and use needed products. Ag Chemical Updates can be accessed from their dedicated page here. 

Non-performance reporting form

You can access the Non-Performance Reporting Form for Horticultural Pesticides here. This form should be completed when an adverse experience occurs as a result of using a minor use permit. A 'non-performance' is an unintended or unexpected effect on plants, plant products, animals, human beings or the environment, including injury, sensitivity reactions or lack of efficacy associated with the use of an agricultural chemical product(s) when used according to permit or label directions.

Permits, maximum residue limits and the food standards code

Users are advised that while a product can be applied legally under an APVMA minor use permit, there can be a significant delay until the maximum residue limit (MRL) gazetted by the APVMA is adopted in the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code. Until this occurs, the MRL may not be recognised and a zero tolerance may be imposed for residues of the pesticide resulting from its use according to the APVMA permit.

Please be aware that in the absence of an MRL in the Food Standards Code, the use of the pesticide according to the permit may result in the suspension of the produce in the marketplace. Please check the FSANZ website or the Australian Government ComLaw website to confirm if there are MRLs established by the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code.