A USDA program designed to help specialty crop producers, including flower and plant growers, gain access to safe, effective biological and chemical pest control products, this week received the endorsement of a group of senators.
In a letter to the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies, 13 senators supported an increase in federal funding for the Minor Crop Pest Management Interregional Project, also known as IR-4.
Currently funded at $11.9 million annually, the letter requested an increase in funding to $19 million for fiscal year 2019.
The IR-4 program was established by Congress in 1963 to assist domestic growers of ornamentals and other specialty crops in providing information needed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to register safe and effective pest and disease control products.
Most crop protection products are regulated by the EPA as either conventional pesticides or biopesticides, and the cost to register a new product is very expensive. Due to the limited acreage of specialty crops, including floral and nursery, relative to major food crops, the crop protection industry cannot justify costs associated with the research, development, registration, production and marketing of crop protection products for specialty crops. The IR-4 program provides the assistance needed to ensure that new and more effective crop protection products are developed and made available to specialty crop producers.
SAF and many other agricultural groups also lent their support to the efforts.
