Higher Tier Exposure Assessment in Rice Paddy Areas: A European Perspective

Abstract

This chapter discusses the developments in higher tier exposure assessment in rice paddies in Europe and identifies key issues regarding modeling paddy systems at field scale and basin scale. Methodologies and implementation of higher tier risk assessment of pesticides has rapidly improved over the last few years. The outcome of the various FOCUS groups have provided clear guidelines and modeling tools, which are relatively easy to use even for people with no extensive modeling experience. A similar initiative called Med-Rice produced general guidelines for how risk assessment should be performed at tier 1 using simple spreadsheets. At the moment, registration of rice pesticides is based on Med-Rice tier-1 scenarios and only limited attention has been given to the possibility of future requirements for the development of guidelines and modeling tools for higher tier risk assessment. The progress made so far towards the development of a higher tier assessment approach in rice paddies is attributed to isolated research efforts and not to concerted actions. These efforts have shown that RICEWQ is a well-validated model, which can handle complex situation, and the different pesticide and water management practices applied in rice cultivation in Europe. In addition, it can be easily parameterized and used within the context of member-state scenarios for rice cultivation. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd All rights reserved.