EUROPE: Guidance for the dose expression for vertical crops (Belgium and Central zone)

Published by Florence Dupeuble at 24 May 2018

This guidance document, drawn up in December 2017 and which has just been published, explains how Belgium has been dealing for many years with the expression of the doses per hectare Leaf Wall Area (LWA) for the application of plant protection products to the canopy of vertical crops. This document contains all the information necessary to allow approval holders of plant protection products to calculate a dose per hectare of LWA and to prepare the application dossier according to the Belgian requirements. Meanwhile, the completeness check procedure and the draft Registration Report format have also been adapted. The guidance document thus contains both instructions for approval holders and for the Authorities on the assessment of the applications for authorisation. These new criteria will apply to all applications submitted in Belgium after 31st December 2018.

At last, this document reminds decisions made for the Central zone regarding the dose expression for vertical crops:

The LWA concept should first become effective in the efficacy evaluation in grapevine, pome fruit and high growing vegetables;
In these crops, application dossiers for new products (under Article 33) will only be accepted when trials were planned and carried out based on LWA (to become effective from 01.01.2020);
Accordingly, the respective trials must be planned and carried out based on LWA (to become effective from 01.01.2018);
The LWA dose rate shall be indicated in the GAP table.