Commercial applicators also have obligations relative to these records. A certified commercial applicator must provide a record of a restricted use pesticide application within 30 days to the person for whom such an application was provided . The overall intent of the recordkeeping requirement is to form a national data base for agronomic and environmental surveys by State and Federal agencies. Summaries of the data will address consumer concerns on food safety, to assure the public that their food is safe . The USDA Agricultural Marketing Service will oversee the entire program.
Provisions are present to protect the identity of individual producers in such surveys and reports.
There is no requirement for any survey reporting by the certified private applicators . Inherent with recordkeeping are several advantages for private applicators. They will sharpen their management skills. Further encouragement of cost-effective and environmentally prudent use of pesticides will also result. For those farmers who have not maintained similar records on their own, recordkeeping will help them keep track of their costs.