Location: Vegetable Research
2023 Annual Report
Objectives
1. Obtain efficacy and residual data of insecticides, miticides, herbicides and fungicides on vegetable crops and ornamentals against insects and mites.
2. Provide national leadership in coordination of the minor use pesticide program in ARS; ensure compliance with all Federal GLP directives; and review, evaluate, and coordinate the development of data on efficacy, phytotoxicity, and residue data and ensure that these data are acceptable toward obtaining registrations for minor crops.
Approach
Field evaluations of insecticides, miticides, fungicides, and herbicides will be conducted on vegetable and ornamental crops. Research will be conducted according to IR-4 protocols and good laboratory practices. No specific treatments can be mentioned ahead of time because program needs change depending on industry requests. Residue samples will be assayed by appropriate federal, state, or private laboratories.
Progress Report
There is a need to develop data to support the registration of new pesticides for use on specialty food crops (fruits, vegetables, nuts, etc.) and on non-food environmental horticulture crops (floral, nursery, landscape plants, Christmas trees, etc.). Therefore, ARS researchers in Charleston, South Carolina, coordinated and conducted pesticide research on specialty crops in cooperation with other ARS sites and the IR-4 Project (previously named Interregional Research Project #4) and cooperating crop protection industries. The IR-4 Project is a national minor-use pesticide program (headquartered at North Carolina State University) that develops data required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to register pesticides on specialty crops. This year is the 60th anniversary of the IR-4 Project and ARS has been cooperating since the beginning. ARS field researchers in Charleston, South Carolina; Tifton, Georgia; Salinas, California; Wapato, Washington; and Wooster, Ohio participated in IR-4 sponsored USEPA Guideline Magnitude of the Residue studies by performing 46 trials with crop protection chemicals on food crops that were initiated in 2022. In Fiscal Year 2023, these ARS sites initiated studies contributing samples from 55 residue field trials. ARS scientists in laboratories in Tifton, Georgia, and Wapato, Washington, are contributing to IR-4 by ongoing analyses of 520 residue samples developed at 105 IR-4 field locations (state and federal) that were received in Fiscal Year 2023. Also, data on non-food environmental crops were developed by ARS researchers at Charleston, South Carolina; Corvallis, Oregon; Tifton, Georgia; Wapato, Washington; Wooster, Ohio; and ARS state cooperators at Rutgers University; these researchers established 114 pesticide/crop combinations to treat ornamental plants with pesticides for crop safety assessment in 2023. ARS researchers in Charleston, South Carolina developed information on potential new uses for target compounds in cooperation with the IR-4 Project for research on pesticides that were completed for 7 food crop residue studies (an herbicide on spinach, and fungicides on basil, cantaloupe, cucumber, leaf lettuce, squash, and turnip roots). Also, 13 herbicide performance trials were completed for studies on ornamental crops (Arachis species, butterfly palm, miniature date palm, windmill palm, stromanthe, dwarf jasmine, duranta, and yellow allamanda) in South Carolina. Results from this work are being used to support the registration of needed pesticides on specialty crops, and many of these pesticides will subsequently be available for use by growers.
Accomplishments
1. Registration of pesticides for food, nursery, and floral crops. ARS researchers in Charleston, South Carolina, conducted and coordinated ARS research in Charleston, South Carolina; Corvallis, Oregon; Salinas, California; Tifton, Georgia; Wapato, Washington; and Wooster, Ohio, in cooperation with the IR-4 Project (previously named Interregional Research Project #4; this year marks 60 years of collaboration with ARS). This research was done to provide crop protection needs for specialty crop growers (food crops such as fruits, vegetables, and nuts, and non-food ornamental crops such as floral, nursery, and landscape plants). ARS researchers at these research farms and analytical laboratories contribute approximately 15% of the total efforts required to achieve the registrations needed by specialty crop growers to manage pests on high value crops. Using this estimate, ARS resources yielded 17 new tolerances, 96 registrations on food crops, and impacted 226 decisions on non-food ornamental crops. In addition, Michigan State University’s Center for Economic Analysis recently published that IR-4 Project efforts adds $8.7 billion dollars to the annual gross domestic product. Based on these values, ARS’ contributions to the IR-4 Project results in $1.3 billion dollars in annual impact.
