Recently, Ministry of Agriculture of Malaysia released guideline for biopesticide registration. In the guideline, the MOA mainly provide data requirements for microbial and botanical registration. The guideline incorporated the main requirements of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Guidance for Harmonizing Pesticide Regulatory Management in Southeast Asia (2012), and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Guidelines on the Regulation, Use and Trade of Biological Control Agents (2014).
The term ‘biopesticides’ is a contraction of biologlical pesticides, but so far it has covered various kinds of pesticides with biological control functions in different regions. The biopesticide registration guideline released in Malaysia mainly includes two kinds of biopesticides: microbial pesticide and botanical pesticide.
-Microbial pseticdies are normally living organisms, like bacteria and fungi, and applied through standard pesticide application equipment.
-Botanical products are extracts from natural plants.
Apart from microbial and botanical pesticides, macrobials (enemy insects or mites of target pests) and semiochemicals (biochemical molecules or mixtures that carry specific messages between individuals of the same or different species) are also used as biopesticide. But, currently, it is the microbial pesticides that dominate the commercial of biopesticides in the global market. Most countries, including Malaysia, hold a cautious attitude towards importation and use marcobials for biological control, considering the local ecology environment and structure of biological chain. As for semiochemicals, the regulatory situation is unclear and sometimes complicated due to efficacy testing and verification in some countries. However, in Maylasia, semiochemicals are not in the scope of ‘pesticide’, there is no need to registry the product and now semiochemicals are widely used commercially. According to ASEAN’s guidelines, by the end of 2013, the Malaysia authority approved total 46 biopesticides, with 35 microbial pesticides, 10 botanical pesticides, and 1 product mix.
Although demand for certain biopesticides is rising significantly, continued supply of poor-quality products and lacking of regional biopesticide management policies may hamper the promotion and application of biopesticides. According to ASEAN guideline, there are around 12 applications for biopesticide registrations per year in the past few years. The issue of biopesticide registration data requirement guideline, or rather long-term national biopesticide management policies should contribute to improvement of biopesticides expansion.
