In 1990 California became the first state to set up a full pesticide use reporting program for all non-animal agricultural applications, created and coordinated by the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR).

Each year, more than two million use report records are submitted to the state’s 56 county agricultural commissioners and then transferred to DPR. Each record contains more than 30 separate pieces of information which DPR collects, analyzes, stores and distributes. Planning is underway for a pesticide use conference on May 8, 2000 to highlight the 10 years of experience with the reporting system. DPR is sponsoring the event; co-sponsors include the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, UC SAREP, the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Food and Agriculture. The main goals of the conference will be to:

• Showcase the utility and value of pesticide use reporting;

• Share information among users of California’s pesticide use report;

• Promote a better understanding of pesticide use data;

• Discuss possible changes needed in current pesticide use reporting;

• Describe future directions for pesticide use reporting.

For more information on the conference, contact the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, 830 K St., Sacramento, CA 95814-3510; Tel: (916) 445-4300; Fax: (916) 324-1452; Web site: http://www.cdpr.ca.gov.