Soon after the 2020 announcement of a ban on an effective and comparatively cheap pesticide , Oregon State University Extension Service research worker were at work on finding alternatives for affected cultivator in Oregon .
Chlorpyrifos , which is being phase out , target persistent dirt ball affecting more than 40 speciality crop that help drive Oregon ’s saving .
grounds that chlorpyrifos , an organophosphate , is associated with neurologic damage in human beings prompted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Oregon Department of Agriculture to ban the pesticide on food crops in 2021 with a net phase - out on all crop by Dec. 31 , 2023 , according to Kaci Buhl , director of the OSU Extension Pesticide Safety Education Program and associate professor of practice in the College of Agricultural Sciences .
The prohibition hits heavily at raiser of crops like strawberries , vegetables , grass seeds , wad , orchard fruits , and nuts who have used chlorpyrifos since the 1960s .
Navneet Kaur ( left ) , assistant professor and Extension entomologist , and Silvia Rondon , director of the Oregon IPM Center , are carry enquiry to identify chlorpyrifos alternatives for control pests in Oregon crops . The Environmental Protection Agency and Oregon Department of Agriculture banned the pesticide due to concern over its neurologic impingement on human beings .
When the ban was announced , ODA awarded OSU Extension a three - year , $ 162,794 Specialty Crop Grant to undertake inquiry to recover chlorpyrifos alternative . A statewide enquiry squad led by Silvia Rondon , director of OSU ’s Oregon Integrated Pest Management Center , begin by surveying farmers who require new Cartesian product and method for insure pesterer that damage their crops .
“ Chlorpyrifos is one of the peter our agriculturalist have been using for age , ” said squad member Navneet Kaur , OSU Extension entomologist and assistant professor in the College of Agricultural Sciences . “ It ’s a product used for many , many year that ’s been effective . When the ODA annunciate the ban , cultivator were not well-chosen because they had no other alternatives . ”
The OSU enquiry squad conducted a critical - use view of Farmer in 2020 - 2021 to distinguish the cause they practice chlorpyrifos . They adduce symphylan , a tight - affect , soil - dwelling arthropod , in addition to aphids , scale insect , root maggots , greensward webworms , root borers , cutworm , and weevil , among other agricultural and horticultural pest . To defend them , farmers most commonly choose chlorpyrifos for its effectuality and for want of alternatives , but its low cost was a reason , too .
Symphylan attacks almost all of the specialty crops grown in Oregon except tree diagram fruits and nuts and are extremely difficult to hold in . agriculturalist of all affected crop report symphylan as the targeted pest for 12 % to 25 % of their chlorpyrifos applications .
Kaur is concentrating on pest ascendence for Gunter Grass seed , a major harvest in Oregon ’s Willamette Valley . More grass seed is produced in the valley than anywhere else in the United States . Kaur study the efficacy of alternative pesticides for sod webworm and symphylan .
Kaur ’s research look at multiple insecticide alchemy for their efficaciousness to set their ability to command symphylan and worm pests . For the subject field , different chemistries were apply to plots implant with the same craw in various localisation .
Regional faculty discipline regional cropsIn regions across the Department of State , Extension mental faculty concentrated on crops crucial to their domain . In westerly Oregon , Kaur concentrated on grass cum . Clover was the focus of Dani Lightle , specialty crops pesticide registration research leader based at the North Willamette Research and Experiment Station ( NWREC ) and assistant professor of practice in the College of Agricultural Sciences .
Eastern Oregon onions were the nidus of Rondon and Stuart Reitz , director of the Malheur Experiment Station in Ontario and professor in the College of Agricultural Sciences . In the Columbia River Gorge , cherry were the subject of enquiry for Chris Adams , Extension yield tree specialist and assistant professor in the College of Agricultural Sciences found at the Mid - Columbia Agricultural Research and Extension Station in Hood River .
Lightle partnered with Kristi Buckland , vegetable and specialty come crop specializer at NWREC and associate prof in the College of Agricultural Sciences . They studied radishes and turnips , in particular , which have been plagued by gelt maggots .
Research was conducted on numerous chemistries in the field using replicated plots , including a control plot of land where no pesticide was sprayed . Some trials were completed at NWREC , and others were planted on private farms . The targeted insects were collected and counted in the different area to regulate if any of the trial products were in force . Results variegate .
Some of these fresh chemistries , like anthranilic diamides ( Vantacor and Besiege ) , which represent a Modern manner of action , were promising for sod webworm control . A liquidity - ready formulation of bifenthrin ( Capture LFR ) was consistently base to be effective for symphylan management in grass seed crops , but no clean choice were identified as extremely effective in vegetable crops yet .
“ Chlorpyrifos is cheap , and when working on a crushed - net profit leeway , an app could cost $ 15 an acre while new fabric can run $ 100 an Accho , ” Lightle tell . “ If you ’re looking at the bottom line , old pesticide are often much less expensive . In terms of effectiveness , the exculpated advantage is a broad - spectrum insecticide that is used against a orotund number of insect . ”
Alternatives ‘ welfare everybody’However , destroying all the insects in the field is not environmentally sustainable , Lightle said . The good insect that often flow on the destructive louse would also be killed . The OSU Extension staff working on the chlorpyrifos project are look for lower - risk of infection but efficacious product in an integrate pest management ( IPM ) management scheme , which focuses on sustainable methods for insect , disease , and weed management .
No matter what products have promise , it takes long time for a new Cartesian product to go through the EPA blessing process , Buckland said . And because Oregon has so many specialty crops , more than one pesticide is necessary to combat all the different dirt ball pests . In addition , pesticide can lose efficaciousness over fourth dimension , so it takes more than one for a successful control scheme .
enquiry continues , said Kaur , who black market seven to eight efficacy field every yr in an attempt to find chlorpyrifos alternatives .
“ Alternatives are important for a mountain of reasons , ” Lightle said . “ For growers , the bottom strain for plague management is good tools . Continuing to develop alternatives goes above and beyond blighter management , though . It has note value for the environment and human wellness . In general , new fabric tend to be lower risk to field doer and have low environmental risk . Therefore , if we can get a skillful option , it will benefit everybody . ”
Source : oregonstate.edu
