Crop Protection Trends To Watch for in 2021
January 6, 2021 When it comes to crop protection, what are the big trends you’re likely to see in 2021? American Vegetable Grower reached out to experts who would know – suppliers.
Here’s a roundup of what they had to tell us.
What are the biggest breakthroughs you anticipate will happen in 2021 related to crop protection?
Chad Asmus, Product Manager for Specialty Crop Insecticides, BASF
In 2021, California vegetable growers will have access to two new insecticides from BASF: Sefina Inscalis insecticide for cucurbits and fruiting vegetables, and Versys Inscalis insecticide for leafy vegetables and brassica cole crops.
Both are a unique mode of action class (IRAC 9D) for resistance management. Sefina insecticide delivers strong control of aphids and whiteflies while being gentle on pollinators and beneficial insects. Versys insecticide brings a new class of aphid control to quickly stop feeding and protect quality. Both Sefina and Versys will provide California vegetable growers with a new and softer insecticide alternative to control their aphid andwhitefly pests.
Mark Freeman, Biological Program Manager, Plant Nutrition, BioWorks
Data that directly connects plant health to crop protection beyond the general understanding that tolerance to pest pressure increases with less crop stress.
Jeremy Adamson, Product Manager, Certis
As a result of COVID-19, consumers’ dietary habits have shifted, and they are eating more food at home. As a result, they are making more informed decisions regarding what type of products are being applied on the commodities they consume. Biologicals meet this demand by reducing and/or eliminating residues in food production.
Gerald O’Connor, President, KeyPlex
We predict seeing a heavy reduction in EU accepted chemicals because of geo-political governance.
Jennie Smith, Sales Manager, Agriculture, Koppert
From our side, we are going to focus on utilizing technology to support growers. We have a proprietary scouting software, and we also have a partner in which we have extensive research into applying predatory insects via drone (specifically persimilis for two-spotted spider mites in strawberries).
Frank Miele, President, Magna-Bon
Recognition of low active ingredient coppers to fight well-known bacterial disease with little to no impact on the environment.
Kevin Hammill, CCO, Marrone Bio
One trend that we are seeing is that growers and crop protection companies are incorporating biologicals into their overall crop management program. For example, growers are combining biologicals with traditional chemistries in their tank mixes to decrease stress, enhance performance and produce higher yields and or quality. Marrone Bio Innovations termed this approach BioUnite™, harnessing the power of biologicals with the performance of chemistry, and we’re actively educating growers on how to use this approach on their farm.
Another breakthrough we’ll see in 2021 is the continued mainstreaming of biologicals with synthetic chemistries.
An example of this is the launch of a new BioUnite product that will be available to Florida specialty crop growers in late 2021. This new product will come in an easy-to-use premix and fuses the plant health benefits of two actives: Reynoutria extract, the active ingredient in biological market-leader Regalia®, and the disease-fighting power of azoxystrobin with Allosperse® Delivery System technology, a proprietary technology owned by Vive Crop Protection. The Allosperse technology provides superior handling characteristics including compatibility with in-furrow, pop-up and foliar liquid fertilizers.
Bethany Allison, Customer & Brand Marketing Manager, NuFarm
I anticipate the recent regulatory decision on dicamba to be the biggest breakthrough for crop protection in 2021. This provides a tool for managing resistant weeds in key crops – cotton and soybeans but also concern for specialty growers with off-target impacts.
Eric Tedford, R&D, Summit Agro
The world view of crop protection has changed dramatically over the past few years and many chemical companies are rushing to develop products that have lower residues and therefore less issues with MRL’s (Maximum Residue Limits) for international trade. Therefore, there now is much greater interest in development of biological products that do not leave residues on the crop at all. Although biological products often are not as effective as hard chemistries because for them to work often requires a lot of work and a little bit of luck. However, Summit Agro has recently registered the very first hybrid fungicide ever, and this product will be a breakthrough product for US agriculture in 2021. By hybrid I mean that it is a combination of a well-known triazole fungicide active ingredient difenoconzole, and the natural compound tea tree oil derived from the tea tree, Melaleuca alternifolia that is endemic to Australia.
The interesting thing about tea tree oil is that it contains eight different terpenes that impart activity on fungal and bacterial plant pathogens presenting multiple modes of action or ways of killing them. That is correct, I said fungal and bacterial. Tea tree oil has activity against both fungi and bacteria which is highly unusual for any fungicide. The main mode of action of tea tree oils is disruption of cell membranes and that is why it works against both fungal and bacterial plant pathogens. However, tea tree oil also inhibits fungal sporulation, spore germination, fungal respiration, and fungal growth. The value of combining tea tree oil with difenoconazole in Regev is that growers now have a product that has multiple modes of action that provide both preventive and curative disease control while leaving only one residue.
The registration of Regev came too late in 2020 for many growers to have the opportunity to use it. However, it is registered for use an many crops including the following vegetable crop groups: bulb vegetables, cucurbit vegetables, brassica leafy vegetables, fruiting vegetables, legume vegetables, and root and tuber vegetables.
To better understand the spectrum of disease that Regev controls lets use tomatoes as an example. Regev is registered for control of anthracnose, bacterial speck, bacterial spot, bacterial canker, early blight, gray leaf spot, gray mold, leaf mold, powdery mildew, Southern bacterial wilt, and target spot. You can see from this example that Regev controls several fungal and bacterial diseases that can cause significant crop losses if left untreated. The value of controlling both fungal and bacterial diseases can not be over emphasized. There are not many products on the market for control of bacterial diseases. Use of antibiotics is not encouraged do to potential for development of resistance to human bacterial pathogens. To be able to use one product that will control both fungal and bacterial diseases provides growers with double protection in one shot.
An additional breakthrough for growers in 2021 is they will also have access to Summit Agro’s new biological fungicide Timorex ACT which contains just the active ingredient tea tree oil alone. This is new and exciting because this product was carefully formulated with other inert ingredients that are organically compliant so that the product is OMRI certified for organic production. So now cucurbit, fruiting, leafy, legume, and root and tuber vegetable growers have a product for fungal and bacterial disease control that they can use for organic production. Timorex ACT just received California registration in October of 2020. In addition, tea tree oil has recently been classified by the Xerces Society for invertebrate Conservation as having low toxicity to bees .
Greg Montez, Technical Manager and Entomologist, Suterra
Developments in crop protection going forward will be significant because we are seeing a new cycle in how growers, crops, and pests interact. Almost all the legacy broad-spectrum insecticides have been phased out: first in favor of more targeted (but still significantly toxic) materials; then later to targeted and less toxic materials. Now, there is great interest in biologicals and biostimulants which are even more narrowly focused.
But there are consequences as well as benefits for all these options. There will always be introduced and invasive pests, but now there are examples of how these pests can completely alter an integrated pest management program that had been proven effective before. We can see from the California citrus industry how the onset of Asian citrus psyllid has entirely disrupted IPM practices for California red scale. Vine mealybug is changing how vineyard managers control pests in grapes.
In vegetables, insecticide resistance is increasing. We have reports of diamondback moth that is resistant to Bt products and becoming tolerant to the newer classes of insecticides. The same is occurring with corn earworm / tomato fruitworm. Crop loss from what is known as the armyworm complex — species like beet armyworm, western yellowstriped armyworm, and true armyworm — is becoming more serious worldwide.
It is going to be more important than ever that crop consultants and pest control advisors use as many different control strategies as possible and to really have a good understanding of the biology of the pests that they are working with. In some vegetable production systems, insect monitoring appears to have fallen out of favor. I hear things like, “It takes too long, we are spraying every week now, we are not trained in identifying the insects…” Moving forward that needs to change. Monitoring is a key component of any IPM program.
Combined with monitoring, there are tools that other cropping systems have used effectively for years that will become more popular in vegetables. Pheromone mating disruption is widely used in tree fruits, nuts, citrus, and grapes. And I see this pest management practice becoming more important to vegetable growers as insecticides become less effective through resistance development. Currently there are sprayable pheromone products for diamondback moth (Suterra CheckMate DBM-F) and beet armyworm (Suterra CheckMate BAW-F) that are very effective in reducing populations of these insects.
Sherry Moss Mitchell, Director of Marketing, Vestaron Corp.
One of the most notable break throughs we anticipate is the increase in new technologies becoming available to growers. There are so many solutions available in precision ag as well as new, safer crop inputs. The challenge to growers is to understand how they can maximize the new options within their operations and how these additions impact their profits. As the efficacy of biological products continues to improve, growers will need to make decisions based on current data and not prior prejudices. New modes of action allow for more specific targeting insecticide options that will help to fight resistance.
John Bohannan, Crop Protection Strategy Lead, Wilbur-Ellis
After our initial planning meetings with the vegetable market suppliers, there seems to be a lot of excitement moving into the 2021 season. There is excitement to move beyond the difficulties that we faced in 2020 and offer new product launched in the specialty markets, along with continuing to give growers additional options to manage their crops. Beyond traditional chemistry, we are noticing additional emphasis placed beyond traditional chemistry and looking at new and different ways to manage crops. From increased use of digital technologies, increased biological product understanding, and increased focus on the specialty markets.
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