Morocco Adopts New Law to Regulate Agricultural Pesticides, Protect Health and Environment

This draft law replaces law No. 42.95 in force since 1995, reports TelQuel. Presented by the Minister of National Education to Parliament Saaid Amzazi, this project "is part of the government’s strategy for sustainable and responsible agriculture. It aims to ensure a high level of protection of human, animal and environmental health".

The objective of the new text is to strengthen the capacities of the competent authorities in terms of risk assessment and control of plant protection products, with a view to limiting the use of the most dangerous products, encouraging the use of low-risk products and promoting the replacement of chemical products by alternative methods.

Similarly, the project aims to organize and control the marketing of these products, in order to curb the dangers related to their possession, distribution, sale and use, while ensuring that only authorized products are marketed, and that the related activities are only carried out by qualified persons holding an approval granted for this purpose.

The adoption of this draft law follows the publication of an explosive report on the quality of the controls carried out by the ONSSA. This report from the Court of Auditors indicated, among other things, that 100% of the wormwood (chiba) consumed in Morocco was non-compliant with health standards.