Unique products (P-Numbers) and their composition

The composition of these products in terms of active substances, additives to declare, synergists and safeners is is defined in the table ingredients, giving the contents in percent weight per weight (percent). For liquid products, a content in grams per litre is also given (g_per_L). If a substance is contained in a form that differs from the definition given in the substance table, this is documented in the respective additional columns as illustrated by the first five rows shown below.

current_register$ingredients |> 
  select(pNbr, pk, type, percent, g_per_L, ingredient_de, ingredient_fr) |> 
  head(n = 5L) |> 
  kable()

The frequency of occurrence of the four different ingredient types is quite different.

library(dplyr)
current_register$ingredients |> 
  select(pk, type) |> 
  unique() |> 
  group_by(type) |> 
  summarize(n = n()) |> 
  kable()

Additives to declare are additives that have an effect on classification and labelling of the product. All substances occurring as synergists or safeners are listed below.

current_register$ingredients |> 
  left_join(current_register$substances, by = "pk") |>
  filter(type %in% c("SYNERGIST", "SAFENER")) |>
  group_by(type, substance_de) |> 
  summarize(n = n(), .groups = "drop_last") |> 
  select(type, substance_de, n) |> 
  arrange(type, substance_de) |> 
  kable()

Note that the first two lines in the code could also be replaced by

current_register |> 
  dm_flatten_to_tbl(ingredients) |> 

which makes use of the foreign key declaration in the data object. However, the more explicit version using left_join is probably easier to understand.

Registered products (W-Numbers)

The registered products are identified by the so-called W-Numbers. The relation between P-Numbers and W-Numbers is illustrated below by showing the first five entries in the products table.

current_register$products |> 
  select(-terminationReason) |> 
  head() |> 
  kable()

As can be seen in these example entries, several registrations (W-Numbers) of the same product type (P-Number) can exist. The W-Numbers without a dash (e.g. 18) are the original registrations, and the ones containing a dash and a trailing number (e.g. 18-1, 18-2) are equivalent products with sales permissions that have a different legal entity as permission holder.

If the product registration has been revoked, the relevant latest dates for selling the product (soldoutDeadline) and for use of the product (exhaustionDeadline) are given in the respective columns.

current_register$products |>
  filter(exhaustionDeadline != "") |> 
  select(-terminationReason) |> 
  head() |> 
  kable()

At the build time of this vignette, there were 1723 product registrations for 1128 P-Numbers in the Swiss Register of Plant Protection Products (SRPPP) as published on the website of the Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office.

Example code for getting a product composition from a product name

If the name of a product is known, the associated P-Numbers and W-Numbers as well as the product composition can be retrieved by a command like the following.

current_register$products |>
  filter(name == "Plüsstar") |>
  left_join(current_register$ingredients, by = "pNbr") |>
  left_join(current_register$substances, by = "pk") |>
  select(pNbr, name, substance_de, percent, g_per_L) |> 
  kable()

Application rates

Application rates in terms of grams of the active substances contained in the products per hectare can be calculated using the function application_rate_g_per_ha() as illustrated in the example below.

In a first step, some uses need to be selected and joined with the information in the ingredients table. The names of the active substances can be joined as well.

example_uses <- current_register$products |> 
  filter(wNbr == "6168") |>
  left_join(current_register$uses, by = join_by(pNbr),
    relationship = "many-to-many") |> 
  left_join(current_register$ingredients, by = join_by(pNbr),
    relationship = "many-to-many") |>
  left_join(current_register$substances, by = join_by(pk)) |>
  select(pNbr, name, use_nr,
    min_dosage, max_dosage, min_rate, max_rate, units_de,
    application_area_de,
    substance_de, percent, g_per_L) |> 
  filter(use_nr %in% c(1:5, 12:17))

kable(example_uses)

Then, the application rates can be calculated for these uses as illustrated below.

application_rate_g_per_ha(example_uses) |>
  select(ai = substance_de, app_area = application_area_de,
  ends_with("rate"), units_de, rate = rate_g_per_ha) |> 
  head(n = 14) |> 
  kable()

Culture forms and cultures

In the current SRPPP versions, there are only two culture forms, greenhouse cultivation and field cultivation.

current_register$culture_forms |> 
  select(starts_with("culture")) |> 
  unique() |> 
  kable()

For specific uses, e.g. for uses number 1 and 2 of product “Boxer” with W-Number 6168, the associated culture form and the registered cultures can be listed as shown below. As each use is typically associated with only one culture form, the culture form and the actual cultures can be joined to the use numbers in one step.

current_register$products |> 
  filter(wNbr == "6168") |> 
  left_join(current_register$uses, by = "pNbr") |> 
  filter(use_nr %in% 1:2) |> 
  left_join(current_register$culture_forms, by = c("pNbr", "use_nr")) |> 
  select(pNbr, use_nr, ends_with("de")) |> 
  kable()

Target organisms

The target organisms for each use can be found in the table pests. Example code for retrieving the target organisms for specific uses is given below.

current_register$pests |> 
  filter(pNbr == 7105L, use_nr %in% 1:2) |> 
  select(use_nr, ends_with("de"), ends_with("fr")) |> 
  kable()

Unique combinations of cultures and target organisms

In the calculations of mean application rates for the Swiss National Risk Indicator (Korkaric et al. 2022, 2023), unique combinations of product, culture, and target organism were termed “indications”. Note that when using this definition of indications, each XML section <Indication> can describe several indications. The relation between uses (<Indication> sections) and indications as defined in the indicator project is illustrated below.

culture_pest_combinations <- current_register$uses |> 
  filter(pNbr == 6521L) |> 
  left_join(current_register$cultures, by = c("pNbr", "use_nr")) |> 
  left_join(current_register$pests, by = c("pNbr", "use_nr")) |> 
  select(pNbr, use_nr, application_area_de, culture_de, pest_de)

kable(culture_pest_combinations)

In this example, there are 25 such “indications” for the 15 uses.

Application comments

Sometimes, use specific comments can be found in the application_comments table.

current_register$application_comments |>
  filter(pNbr == 7105, use_nr %in% 1:2) |> 
  select(pNbr, use_nr, ends_with("de"), ends_with("fr")) |> 
  kable()

Obligations

The use conditions for each use are listed in the table obligations. In the following example, the column sw_runoff_points is selected in the output, as both use authorisations are conditional on risk mitigation for runoff to surface water amounting to at least one point.

current_register$obligations |>
  filter(pNbr == 7105, use_nr %in% 1:2) |> 
  select(pNbr, use_nr, code, obligation_de, sw_runoff_points) |> 
  kable()