A panel of Brazil's Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region has ruled unanimously that the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAPA) must, within 180 days, formally prohibit aerial spraying of the neonicotinoid insecticides imidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxam on all crops nationwide, with matching changes to product labels and registrations. The decision by the court's 4th Panel, reported by Brazilian agribusiness outlets on 16 and 17 September, also set a deadline for the environmental agency Ibama to complete its long-delayed re-evaluation of a fourth insecticide, fipronil.

The case (5021356-42.2021.4.03.6100) began as a public civil action by the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office seeking a nationwide ban on aerial application of the four active ingredients because of the risk to pollinators and rural workers. Ibama had finished its environmental re-evaluations of imidacloprid and clothianidin in 2021 and of thiamethoxam in February 2024, but the court found the agencies had shown "qualified administrative inertia" in turning those conclusions into binding label and registration changes.

For fipronil, Ibama has up to 360 days to finish its assessment, after which MAPA has a further 90 days to act on the findings; aerial application of fipronil to foliage has been under a precautionary ban since 2012, which the ruling leaves in place. The judgment does not restrict ground application of any of the four insecticides, cancels no registration, and leaves registered products legal to sell and apply by non-aerial means while the ministry works to the deadline.

Neonicotinoids are among the most used insecticide classes in Brazilian row-crop farming, applied against whiteflies, aphids and stink bugs in soybean, cotton and cereals, and much of that spraying is done from fixed-wing aircraft given the scale of the country's largest farming regions. An enforceable national ban on aerial use, replacing the partial administrative measures in place since 2022, would push growers and aerial contractors in the main producing states towards ground rigs or drones, or to other chemistries for the aerial pass. It is at least the second court intervention in Brazil's pesticide pipeline this month, after a Brasília labour court froze new glyphosate registrations for 90 days in early September.

Photo: inkknife_2000 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Source: AgroPages