IR-4 Specialty Crop Pest Management
- Overview
- The Strategy
- The Four-step Approach
- IR-4 Accomplishments for 2005 and Initiatives for 2006
- Contacts
Overview
The National Research Support Project-4 (IR-4) has been the major resource for supplying pest management tools for specialty crop growers for more than 40 years. IR-4 is a highly effective, collaborative effort among the state agricultural experiment stations, CSREES, the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), commodity growers, and the crop protection industry. IR-4's mission is to facilitate the availability of EPA-registered, safe, and effective pest management products for specialty crop growers.
Specialty crop growers produce high-value, small-acreage crops throughout the United States. Twenty-six states derive more than 50 percent of their agricultural crop sales from specialty crops. These include food crops such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, and herbs and nonfood crops such as turf and ornamental landscape plants. These crops have a value of approximately $43 billion, or about 46 percent of the total farm crop value in the United States. In many cases, the agricultural chemical industry cannot justify the time and expense required to research much-needed crop protection products on these high-value crops. The success of the IR-4 project is proven and can be measured in its development of data to support nearly 20,000 food use and ornamental horticulture label clearances.
Funding for IR-4 comes from CSREES, ARS, and from state agricultural experiment stations (SAES). IR-4 Headquarters is associated with the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment station at Rutgers University. Each state has an IR-4 state liaison at its land-grant university. Four regional IR-4 research centers are maintained at Cornell University, Michigan State University, University of California-Davis, and University of Florida. There are numerous field research centers and a satellite laboratory as well. The ARS minor use program is an integral part of IR-4, supplying data through its own field and laboratory facilities.
Since 1977, IR-4 has assisted with the registration of more than 10,000 crop protection chemicals and biological pest control agents on nursery stock, flowers, and turfgrass. The ornamental industry accounts for more than 25 percent, or $12 billion, of the total minor crop value in the United States.
Additionally, biopesticides have been an important IR-4 thrust since 1982. The IR-4 Biopesticide Program assists small companies, USDA, and university scientists by consulting and preparing regulatory packages to obtain registration of microbial and natural products. The primary objective of the IR-4 Biopesticide Research Program is to further the development and registration of biopesticides for use in pest management systems for specialty crops or for minor uses on major crops.
The Strategy
IR-4's strategy in assisting specialty crop growers includes:
- Facilitating regulatory clearance of lower or reduced risk products for specialty crops.
- Assisting in the development of risk mitigation measures for existing minor use registrations when appropriate.
- Assisting with the registration of biologically-based pest control products for specialty crops.
- Registering and maintaining products essential to Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs and systems.
The cornerstone of the IR-4 Strategic Plan has been to focus projects on lower-risk products. More than 80 percent of IR-4 efforts focus on lower-risk products.
The Four-step Approach
IR-4 supports specialty crop growers by leading the coordination and focus of generating data to support the regulatory clearance of crop protection chemical and biological control agents through the EPA. To accomplish this, IR-4 has developed a four-step approach:
- Research prioritization
- Research planning
- Research implementation
- Data submission and approval
Step 1 is accomplished through annual workshops involving growers, commodity organizations, university research and extension specialists, EPA staff, and industry representatives who collectively determine the project priorities based on the importance of the pest and the ability of the control tactic to manage the pest.
Step 2 is accomplished when research directions are drafted, sent out for review by stakeholders, revised to integrate comments received, and issued as a final research protocol.
Step 3 is accomplished in two phases—field and laboratory research. During the field phase, researchers apply the crop protection chemical to the target crop according to the specified protocol. The crop is harvested and transferred to the laboratories, where the chemical residues in the crop, if any, are analyzed. All field and laboratory research is conducted under EPA Good Laboratory Practices.
Step 4 involves IR-4 critically reviewing the field and laboratory data, drafting a formal regulatory package, and submitting the report of the study to EPA for review. EPA will review the report and if appropriate, will approve the submission and establish a maximum residue limit, which is a tolerance to support the use of the chemical on the target specialty crops.
Fieldwork is performed at various sites throughout the United States at locations that meet specific EPA requirements for geographic distribution of data. Most IR-4 field research is conducted at field research centers in California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.
In addition, ARS has cooperating IR-4 field research sites in California, Georgia, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, and Washington. IR-4 laboratory analyses are conducted primarily at the California, Florida, Michigan, and New York agricultural experiment stations ARS laboratories in Georgia, Maryland, and Washington also cooperate with residue sample analysis. Protocol development, data assimilation, petition writing, and registration processing are coordinated through IR-4 Headquarters.
IR-4 Accomplishments for 2005 and Initiatives for 2006
Clearances
- Food Use
The IR-4 Project obtained 991 clearances for specialty crops in 2005. The EPA continues to review and grant decisions on a large number of IR-4 submissions.
- Ornamentals
In 2005, IR-4 conducted more than 1,200 ornamental horticulture research trials to support registrations and grower decisions in the greenhouse, nursery, landscape, Christmas tree, and forestry industries.
During 2005, one new label registration, Endorse (polyoxin D), was granted for use on ornamental horticulture crops from data generated through the IR-4 Ornamental Horticulture Program.
- Biopesticides
In 2005, IR-4 data supported 39 new biopesticide food uses for eight products. These included: Reynoutria sachalinensis on all food commodities for 28 new food uses; AgriPhage on tomato and pepper; Polyoxin-D (Endorse) on ginseng; Bacillus subtilis (Serenade) on horseradish; Psuedomonas syringae (Bio Save ESC11) on sweet potato; Muscodor albus (Arabesque) on orange, cherry, and grape; Paecilomyces lilacinus strain 251 (MeloCon) on tomato and pepper; and Alternaria destruens Strain 059 (Smolder) for control of dodder (Cuscutta spp.) in cranberry. The biopesticide program also funded 56 efficacy projects, several of which were co-funded by the EPA. Many of these products are important to the organic market.
- Crop Grouping Project
The Crop Grouping Project, currently underway with the EPA, will increase the current 500 commodities to more than 1,500 specialty crops to the regulatory process. This will double the value (i.e., number of crops) of each IR-4 package submitted to the EPA.
- IR-4/EPA Technical Working Group
The IR-4/EPA Technical Working Group has taken a leadership role with the EPA to explore initiatives to facilitate specialty crop registrations. One example is electronic petition submissions, which IR-4 plans to utilize for all its petition submissions in 2006. Using electronic submissions could reduce the EPA’s resources for reviewing IR-4 data by 35 percent.
- NAFTA Cooperation
In the past six years, IR-4 supported more than 4,450 new uses that were registered in the United States, but only a few of these uses were made available to growers in Canada. The recognition of the cooperative projects allows the EPA and Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency to simultaneously review submissions to be accepted in the United States and Canada.
- Strategic Plan
In February 2005, more than 150 researchers, commodity representatives, and industry personnel participated in a strategic planning conference to discuss their needs and share inputs in helping IR-4 consider its strategic direction. Recommendations from this conference played a major role in helping the IR-4 Project Management Committee put together a strategic plan for 2006-2008, which includes initiatives for seed technology, aquatic herbicides, and a global specialty crop program.
- Seed Technology Program
In 2005, and with industry funding, IR-4 began seed technology research in Brassica vegetables and cucurbits in Washington and California (Phoma spp. control in crucifers) and cucumber beetle control on cucurbits in North Carolina, New York, and Ohio.
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Global Specialty Crop Initiative
IR-4 is uniquely positioned with its expertise in both specialty crops and partnerships to manage a global specialty crop initiative. This initiative could also play a major role in assisting with international reviews for a Joint Meeting on Pesticide Residue (JMPR) or by participating more actively on the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This global initiative would enhance global registrations and reduce trade barriers, while at the same time further promote the use of new, safer pest control products.
Other Accomplishments
Pilot Efficacy Programs
- Thrips
The IR-4 pilot efficacy programs identified solutions for thrips management on onions.
- Phytophthora capsici
IR-4 stakeholders selected to work on solutions for Phytophthora capsici found some promising solutions for managing this disease on cucumbers and peppers. In 2005, IR-4 sponsored a Phytophthora capsici workshop that brought together scientists who represented industry, university extension, research, and ARS to identify trial strategies to fight this disease.
- Leafy Vegetables
IR-4’s pilot efficacy program identified potential non-phytotoxic herbicides for leafy vegetables.
Contacts
Monte Johnson representsCSREES on IR-4’s Project Management Committee.
IR-4 Headquarters:
Dr. Jerry J. Baron
IR-4 Executive Director
IR-4 Project Headquarters
Rutgers, The State University of NJ
500 College Road East, Suite 201 W
Princeton, NJ 08540
Phone: 732-932-9575, Ext. 4605
FAX: 609-514-2612
eMail: jbaron@aesop.rutgers.edu
Web: ir4.rutgers.edu
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