2014 Highlights: UC IPM Annual Report

UC and Industry Work with DPR to Clarify the Agricultural Use of Chlorpyrifos

The full report contains pest profiles that include information about pest status, pesticide alternatives, and alternative management practices.

Chlorpyrifos is an effective agricultural insecticide used in food, fiber, and forage crops in California.  Currently there are ongoing evaluations at the state and national levels to assess potential human and environmental health risks from this active ingredient and to consider what, if any, regulatory actions on chlorpyrifos might provide further safeguards.

To equip California’s pesticide regulatory scientists with a comprehensive understanding of chlorpyrifos use in four unique cropping systems, UC IPM Advisor Pete Goodell and Project Coordinator Lori Berger convened leaders from the alfalfa, almond, citrus, and cotton industries to gather input on chlorpyrifos use in relation to other pest management methods, such as resistant varieties, mating disruption, field sanitation, and other insecticides. This information was specifically gathered in order to develop informed mitigation and prevention approaches, if and where needed.

Crop leaders included commodity group representatives, UCCE advisors and specialists, pest control advisers (PCAs), and growers. Their goal was to characterize the most critical uses of chlorpyrifos in each crop, meaning determining key pests for which there are no or few alternatives and where chlorpyrifos plays a unique and necessary role in an IPM program. The full report of these discussions is in Identifying and Managing Critical Uses of Chlorpyrifos Against Key Pests of Alfalfa, Almonds, Citrus and Cotton (PDF). The next step is to develop educational resources that support decision making for the pest control advisers and growers on the frontlines to recognize the critical use scenarios that may require an application of chlorpyrifos. Training will be conducted on the use of these new tools in 2015, as well as a wide variety of insect management options.

There are a number of positive outcomes from this project. Having this discussion has enhanced the University’s guidelines for managing pests and strengthened the relationship between industry and California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR) scientists. Growers and PCAs will have tools and training that will help them make decisions so that chlorpyrifos is only used when necessary, possibly resulting in less pesticide use. A better understanding of grower and PCA needs will inform the development of prevention and mitigation tactics that CDPR develops to protect human and environmental health. Research gaps and policy issues were identified as longer-term objectives necessary to move to new products or other management practices.

Chlorpyrifos is used in many of California’s 300+ crops, alfalfa, almond, citrus, and cotton. CDPR selected these four commodities due to the overall acreage to which this pesticide is applied and insecticide use patterns. Combined these commodities represented a value of over $10 billion grown on 2.5 million acres of California farmland.

UC IPM was selected for this contract because of its proven track record in pest management and its ability to productively address complex issues in agriculture.