Crop groups are an important tool for growers, especially those who need pesticide options for minor uses. EPA is revising crop grouping regulations by:

• A multi-year joint project with NAFTA partners in Canada and Mexico to revise the existing crop groups in 40 CFR 180.41, to add new crops and create new groups and subgroups. View codified crop groups in the Code of Federal Regulations Part 40 Section 180.41.
• NAFTA partners working with international stakeholders to modify the Codex crop groups, to support global trade and the use of data extrapolation.

Read more about Crop Grouping in the Docket: EPA-HQ-OPP-2006-0766 (includes information about the crop grouping revisions, including the proposed and final rules published to date and the supporting and related material).

Establishing and Revising Crop Groups

Crop groups are established when residue data for certain representative crops are used to establish pesticide tolerances for a group of crops that are botanically or taxonomically related. Representatives of a crop group or subgroup are those crops whose residue data can be used to establish a tolerance on the entire crop group or subgroup.

Petitions to revise the NAFTA crop grouping regulations are developed by the International Crop Grouping Consulting Committee (ICGCC), a group of over 180 crop, agrichemical, and regulatory experts representing more than 30 countries and organizations. The ICGCC Chair, an employee of the Interregional Research Project Number 4 (IR-4), develops formal petitions with input and review from other ICGCC members, which are submitted by IR-4 to the EPA for joint review by U.S. and Canadian regulatory agencies. Approved revisions to crop group regulations are formalized in the U.S. by publication in the Federal Register.

NAFTA partners are also working cooperatively with international stakeholders in the efforts to revise the Codex system of classification of foods and animal feeds and to revise the Codex crop groups. Involvement by NAFTA member countries in the Codex process will help to standardize commodity terminology and crop groupings within the global context.