Work begins to attain gain of tolerance for permethrin in juice grapes in United States
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EmailMichigan State University and the IR-4 Project are working to harmonize U.S. and Canadian pesticide registrations. By attaining an “A” priority, IR-4 will conduct residue trials leading to a U.S. tolerance for permethrin.
The U.S. grape juice industry represents over 75,000 acres of vineyards in the United States, but also relies upon significant imports from Canada to domestic processing plants. Unfortunately, one of the near harvest pest management tools legally used by Canadian grape growers is permethrin, which does not have a tolerance in the United States. This has significantly hampered trade and impacted the profitability of this important specialty crop industry in recent years.
The IR-4 Project (Interregional Research Project No.4) facilitates the registration of sustainable pest management technology for specialty crops and minor uses. IR-4 has been developing registration data to support new EPA tolerances hereby amending labels for new product uses. Due to the current crop protection tools under the PRIA and the high cost to industry of product registration, specialty crops are at risk of having few available pest management products or being lost for pest management.
To alleviate this problem, IR-4, primarily funded by USDA NIFA, facilitates pesticide registration for specialty crops by conducting field residue trials and often efficacy and crop safety trials. Specialty crop research needs are prioritized each year during a national workshop since resources are limited. The primary objective of this workshop was to have the participants identify the most important research projects for the 2014 IR-4 food-use research program.
Rich Erdle of the National Grape Cooperative worked with me (Michigan State University Extension specialist and professor of entomology, and IR-4 field research director) to attain an “A” priority for IR-4 to conduct residue trials leading to a U.S. tolerance for permethrin to help resolve this problem. Other field research directors nation-wide and I will conduct field residue trials in 2014, which paves the way for a U.S. EPA registration of this compound.
