Plant Quarantine and International Regulations

Study Notes

The International Plant Protection Convention was established in 1951 under the FAO at Rome, with the purpose of preventing the introduction and spread of pests and diseases of plants and plant products.

International quarantine: Legislation to prevent the introduction of new pests and weeds from foreign countries.
Domestic quarantine: Legislation to prevent the spread of already established pests, diseases, and weeds from one part of the country to another.
Farmer's quarantine: Legislation to enforce farmers to apply effective control measures to prevent damage by already established pests.
Food quarantine: Legislation to prevent the adulteration and misbranding of insecticides and determine their permissible residue tolerance levels in foodstuffs.
Quarantine for pest control operations: Legislation to regulate the activities of people engaged in pest control operations and application of hazardous insecticides.

Plant quarantine serves as a national service by preventing the introduction of exotic pests/pathogens/weeds and their further spread.
Plant quarantine can be defined as rules and regulations promulgated by governments to regulate the introduction of plants, planting materials, plant products, soil, living organisms, etc. to prevent the introduction of exotic pests, weeds, and pathogens.

1403: The first quarantine was enforced in Venice to prevent the spread of bubonic plague.
1660: A quarantine law was enacted in Rouen, France, to eradicate barberry plants from the vicinity of grain fields.
1866: The first British legislation against a disease in animals or plants was enacted to destroy all cattle affected by rinderpest.
1873: An embargo was passed in Germany to prevent the importation of plant and plant products from the US to prevent the introduction of the Colorado potato beetle.
1875: The first legislative measures against plant disease were promulgated by states in North America.
1877: The United Kingdom Destructive Insects Act was passed to prevent the importation of the Colorado beetle.
1881: The first international plant protection convention, the Phylloxera convention, was signed at Berne by five countries.
1891: The first plant quarantine measure was initiated in the US by setting up a seaport inspection station at San Padro, California.
1912: The US Congress enacted the Federal Plant Quarantine Act, which prohibits the entry of plants into the United States.
2003: The PFS order was revised to fulfill India's legal obligations under the WTO Agreement and the Plant Quarantine (Regulation of Import into India) order came into force.