The State Plant Protection Service in cooperation with the Scientific Institute of Food Safety, Animal Health and Environment "BIOR" is implementing the project "Improvement of Plant Protection System and Laboratory Capacity for Food Export Promotion in Uzbekistan" funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the aim to improve the monitoring system and laboratory capacity of plant protection and fertilisers in Uzbekistan, in particular in residue detection and soil agrochemical research.
The project will start work on the establishment of a European Union-level registration and monitoring system for plant protection products to ensure food safety and export compliance. Best practices of the European Union, Latvia and other countries will be presented for the establishment of a plant protection system ensuring food safety, human health and environmental protection of the highest standards, the capacity of the Plant Protection and Quarantine Agency of Uzbekistan to conduct residue testing of plant protection products using instrumental chemical methods will be assessed and enhanced, as well as the compliance of the quality system with ISO/IEC 17025 requirements. According to the results of the assessment, a training programme will be developed and implemented in both Latvia and Uzbekistan. As a result, the capacity and knowledge of the Plant Protection and Quarantine Agency will be improved, further steps will be taken to establish a plant protection system, the qualification of experts will be improved and the prerequisites for accreditation and recognition of the laboratory in the European Union, which is an important condition for the promotion of exports, will be prepared.
Project activities:
Activity 1 - Visit of Uzbek experts and overview of the Latvian system
Activity 2 - Structure and basic principles of plant protection systems in Latvia and the European Union
Activity 3 - Principles of integrated crop protection
Activity 4 - Competence requirements for a testing laboratory (resources, processes and management system)
Activity 5 - Soil agrochemical databases
Activity 6 - Use of agrochemical analysis results
The duration of the project is from 1 July 2022 to 15 November 2022. The project budget is EUR 59 993,40, consisting of a grant from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
