January 30, 2025

Pest Management Solutions for Specialty Crops and Specialty Uses

The following is a recap of news and updates released by

The IR-4 Project during the month of January.

LATEST NEWS

People of IR-4: Luis E. Almodóvar

The People of IR-4 series introduces extraordinary IR-4 team members, highlighting the incredible contributors who make our success possible, and our community one of a kind. In the latest story by Raven E. Baez, meet Luis E. Almodóvar—Field Research Director at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez in IR-4’s Southern Region. Luis generously took time out of his schedule to share about his background, his role at IR-4, and his life outside of work. Thanks, Luis!

Share Your Crop Protection Needs: Environmental Horticulture Grower + Extension Survey Now Open

In preparation for the 2025 Environmental Horticulture Workshop, the 2025 Environmental Horticulture Program Grower & Extension Survey is now available to collect your input.

The Grower & Extension Survey is the best way to tell us which pest problems you have difficulty managing due to insufficient tools. Your input helps shape discussions at the biennial Environmental Horticulture Workshop and helps our team understand the needs of growers in this vital sector. As of fall 2024, we have transitioned the survey to a Google form. You may complete and submit the form here (or find it linked on the EH Grower Needs page).

The deadline for submitting a survey for 2026/2027 research is August 29, 2025. Thank you for your important input—we look forward to securing tools that will help you grow your healthiest crops yet.

Join the IR-4 HQ Team

IR-4 Project Headquarters at NC State University seeks an Environmental Horticulture (Ornamentals) Program Manager to join our team. This is a vital role to our organization, and we have renewed our efforts to find the best candidate with an updated job posting.

The IR-4 Project Environmental Horticulture (Ornamentals) Program Manager position will be tasked to coordinate research and pesticide (bio-based and chemical) registration activities on non-food, ornamental plant species within the IR-4 Project. Specifically, this position will direct:

• The establishment of research priorities via a biennial stakeholder priority setting workshop.
• Oversee the establishment of the annual research program including development of research protocols, working with Regional Field Coordinators to identify research cooperators.
• Interface with representatives from registrants, trade associations, and regulatory agencies.
• Critically review results of field trials, assess if there is adequate data to support regulatory actions and/or use recommendations.

This position is aligned with the IR-4 Project mission to facilitate regulatory approval of sustainable pest management technology for specialty crops including ornamental crops and other environmental horticulture uses. 

Visit our Careers page to read the full job posting and apply through NC State!

EVENT UPDATES

Registration is Open for the 2025 Industry Technology Session

We're only a few weeks away from the 2025 Industry Technology Session, which will be held virtually (via Zoom) on Thursday, February 20. We anticipate a schedule of 11:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET, but the exact timing is subject to change. This annual event invites companies to present updates on products already in IR-4 research, as well as new technologies designed to meet the pest management needs of specialty crop producers.

We have shifted the Industry Technology Session (ITS) to occur earlier in the year (February rather than July) to better accommodate stakeholders' busy summer schedules and allow more time before the Project Clearance Request deadline of July 1, 2025.

The ITS is a precursor to the 2025 Food Use Workshop. Technologies discussed during the next ITS may be eligible for IR-4 research in 2026. Find the presentations from the 2024 Industry Technology Session here.

We will continue to add information and resources to the ITS event page as our team finalizes the details. A tentative agenda will be posted next week once the presenter lineup is finalized. We are accepting presenters through the close of business tomorrow, January 31; company representatives are invited to sign up to present via the presenter form on the event page.

We hope you'll join us virtually on February 20!

Save the Date: 2025 Food Use Workshop

The 2025 Food Use Workshop will take place September 9-11 in Denver, Colorado. Research priorities for residue, product performance, and integrated solutions studies for 2026 will be identified during this workshop. A virtual attendance option will be available.

We will update the Food Use Workshop web page continually as the event approaches, so we recommend bookmarking it for future reference. We'll send reminders via newsletter, too, so please encourage your colleagues to sign up for these announcements. Registration, hotel booking, and a tentative agenda will come in early 2025.

We hope to see you in Denver (or virtually) in September!

2025 Environmental Horticulture Workshop Update

We look forward to convening in person for the 2025 Environmental Horticulture Workshop. Our team is working hard to secure an excellent location for this biennial priority-setting event. Please mark your calendars for October 6-8, 2025. Once the details are finalized, we will send out an official save the date and event web page. Thank you for your patience as we put together a bountiful program!

Join Us as a 2025 Event Sponsor

Sponsors make IR-4's events possible and help us deliver on our grower-focused mission. Are you interested in joining IR-4 as an event sponsor for 2025? We welcome your partnership! With events spanning new technology, food crops and ornamental crops, 2025 is an opportune time to join us as a sponsor and reach a variety of specialty crop stakeholders. Please reach out to ir-4_project@ncsu.edu for more information.

RESEARCH UPDATES

Food Crops

The following tolerance success was added to the IR-4 website in January. Find other tolerance successes under Food Crop Successes & Stories.

• Cyazofamid (Federal Register date: December 5, 2024)

Environmental Horticulture

The Environmental Horticulture Program's research summaries share efficacy and crop safety data from IR-4 projects. While there are no brand-new summaries to share this month, we encourage you to dive into the extensive library of summaries for informative winter reading. Searchable by entomology, plant pathology, and weed science projects, these research summaries are a helpful resource, covering many different active ingredients and their potential use on a variety of ornamental crops.

— Stay tuned for more in February —

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This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award number 2022-79111-38469 with substantial cooperation and support from the State Agricultural Experiment Stations, USDA-ARS and USDA-FAS. In accordance with Federal Law and U.S. Department of Agriculture policy, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability.