Scheduled for today (29), the vote on the so-called Bill (PL) on Pesticides in the Agriculture Commission (PL 1,459/2022) of the Senate did not take place. The chairman of the commission, senator Acir Gurgacz (PDT-RO), decided to expand the debate on the text with members of the transition team of president-elect Lula, before voting on the text. The decision was taken after much debate, disagreements and the request of senators Humberto Costa (PT-PE) and Eliziane Gama (Cidadania-MA).
“We can build, reach an agreement that is less bad. We can come out with a text that is actually better”, said the senator from Maranhão. The text is the target of criticism from oppositionists and sectors of civil society for making the rules for approval and marketing of these products more flexible. Eliziane defended that the topic be better discussed, involving specialists in the area.
According to the senator, more than 1,900 pesticides were released for use in Brazil in the last four years. “Scientific evaluation cannot be ignored. I cannot leave aside scientists who are saying what will happen after the approval of this project”. According to her, the project makes the Sanitary Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) and the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama) just advisory bodies. The final word on the release of pesticides will rest exclusively with the Ministry of Agriculture.
Rapporteur for the article, Gurgacz stated that the main proposal of the project is to make the product analysis process more agile, which will reduce time and, at the same time, increase technical evaluation. For him, this is also an opportunity to put an end to the cartels, “of five or six international organizations, which command the sale of all pesticides in Brazil today”.
Gurgacz’s expectation is to discuss the issue this Tuesday with the new government’s transition team, in the sectors of agriculture, health and environment, and take the text to a vote in the committee tomorrow (30).
