Pesticide certificates to be extended to all users

18 June 1998

Pesticide certificates to be extended to all users

By FWi staff

EVERY farm worker using agricultural pesticides will have to hold a Certificate of Competence under new rules proposed by the Government yesterday.

Certificates will not be awarded until users have completed an approved training course and been specifically taught how to operate the equipment they plan to use.

Currently, users of agricultural pesticides do not need a Certificate of Competence if they were born before 31 December, 1964 and apply pesticides to their own land, or work under the supervision of a certificate holder.

But under the new rules the “grandpa clause”, as it has come be known, will be abolished.