Stewardship is a life-cycle approach to product management. It is the ethical way to manage crop protection products from their discovery and development, to their use and final disposal or phase-out. The overall aim of the stewardship approach is to maximise the benefits, and minimise any risk, from using crop protection products.





CropLife International is committed to promoting effective stewardship in and beyond the field, and believes that the appropriate management and use of our products help underpin sustainable agriculture and safeguard the environment and public health.

Stewardship underpins the International Code of Conduct for the Distribution and Use of Pesticides* (Updated version, Food and Agriculture Organization 2002). CropLife International and its member companies fully support the Code, adherence to which is a condition of membership of the federation. The Code is mainly, but not exclusively, aimed at those countries where good regulation or enforcement regulations are not fully developed or implemented. It is logically also in these areas where the challenges of stewardship, and measuring true impact (i.e. changes in behaviour and practices) is greatest. The industry’s stewardship programmes also recognise this challenge.

Stewardship of crop protection products can be broken down into seven interrelated elements:

1. Research and development
2. Manufacture of products 
3. Transport, storage and distribution  
4. Integrated Pest Management (IPM)  
5. Effective and Responsible Use 
6. Container Management 
7. Obsolete stock management  

*Details of the policy of CropLife International and its leading companies may be found in the International Code of Conduct on the Distribution and Use of Pesticides elsewhere on this site.