Pest Management Solutions for Specialty Crops and Specialty Uses
Greetings!
This monthly email provides information about IR-4 program accomplishments,announcements, resources and upcoming events.
Food Use Program
In May, there were three new tollerances established for Bentazon for Pea, dry; Fluensulfone for Vegetable, root, except sugar beet, subgroup 1B (revised tolerance) 1090411Vegetable, leaves of root and tuber, group 2 (revised tolerance) and Clofentezine for Guava . To view the entire May report click here.

Annual visits by the IR-4 headquarters team and our Canadian AAFC/PMC colleagues, with our many registrant partners, began in May with meetings in North Carolina at Nufarm, ADAMA, BASF, Kumiai, Landis Int’l and Syngenta; and at IR-4 HQ with Belchim. These partnership meetings will continue into August. The IR-4 database is being edited to reflect project updates discussed.
 
The IR-4 2019 "Week of Workshops" is set for the week of Sept. 22 at the Delta Hotel Baltimore Hunt Valley, Hunt Valley, MD (just north of Baltimore). The first announcement went out via email and Constant Contact April 9. Final agendas and other important information will be communicated in coming months via this monthly report and other means. Registration is now open. To view more information and to register go to our website or register here.

For Food Use project prioritization we will again use an online project nomination process (Aug. 29 - Sept. 11) to identify the most critical researchable projects for possible 2020 priorities before we arrive in Baltimore. New project requests (PCRs) should be submitted as early as possible to allow for proper vetting by HQ and registrants prior to the workshop (Aug. 27 is the deadline for new PCRs to be available for nomination and possible discussion at the workshop).
 
We hope you put Sept. 23-26 on your calendar - see you in Baltimore!
International Activities
 
The presentations from t he 2019 California Specialty Crops MRL Workshop (May 29 th and 30 th ) have been posted on t he California Specialty Crops Council  website at: http://specialtycrops.org/mrlworkshop.html    

The 2019 Codex Committee on Pesticide Residues (CCPR)met during week of April 9, 2019 in Macao, China   The CCPR, agreed to forward 326 MRLs to the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) for final adoption at its next session (July 2019).  These MRLs are associated with 31 pesticides. Three of the seven new compounds reviewed by JMPR in 2018 were nominated by the United States. Crop Group and Subgroup MRLs accounted for 43 of the 326 MRLs forwarded for adoption.
 
The Committee considered proposed amendments and reached consensus on the classification work for the following crop groups and subgroups: Class C: Primary Feed Commodities. Type 11: Primary Feed Commodities of Plant Origin, All Groups and Class D: Processed Food Commodities of Plant Origin. All Types and Groups. 

CCPR further developed Guidance for Compounds of Low Public Health Concerns to establish harmonized concepts and criteria to be used to identify pesticides that can be considered exempt from the establishment of CXLs. Many countries supported continued work since products of low public health concern, such as biopesticides, continue to play a more important role in plant protection.
 
The Codex schedules and priorities and the revised Schedules and Priority Lists of Pesticides for review by JMPR included: Six new compounds and twenty nominations listed for new uses, and six compounds for periodic Review. 
Events
IR-4 2019 "Week of Workshops"
Delta Hotels Baltimore Hunt Valley,
Hunt Valley, MD
Week of Sept. 22, 2019
To learn more visit our website:

Environmental Horticulture
2019 Research Activities
Reapplication intervals for some products in protocol 19-010 (Scale & Mealybug) were made clearer. If you are working on this project, please review prior to starting your experiment.
 
Numbers for May
80% of the research has been received for 2017 projects
54% of the research has been received for 2018 projects
2% of the research has been received for 2019 projects
362 unique visitors viewed 914 EnvironHort website pages
 
Research Summaries
During May, we posted crop safety summaries for azoxystrobin, azoxystrobin + difenoconazole, cyflufenamid, pyridalyl, pyrifluquinazon, and tolfenpyrad. We also posted the 2019 Coleopteran Efficacy Summary and started compiling a review of mite efficacy.
 
SCRI Protecting Pollinators
In May, our field research teams began experiments to observe pollinator visitors to additional cultivars and species of perennial and annual plants. We also posted 4 new articles about best management practices to protect bees and interesting fun facts on the Protecting Bees website. Visit the website at: https://protectingbees.njaes.rutgers.edu/
Integrated Solutions
For the Integrated Solutions priority setting workshop, the top priorities identified were: damping-off in hemp, bacterial disease control in onions, parasitic weed control in processing tomato, cucumber beetle control in watermelon, wireworm control in sweet potato, and verticillium wilt control in eggplant. IR-4 believes that this Integrated Solutions approach, being a hybrid of the Food Use Pest Problems without Solutions research (PPWS) and elements of the traditional Biopesticide research program, will better service the needs of the IR-4 stakeholders. These priorities will serve as a roadmap for 2019, and help to address several high priority pest management voids for the grower community. We have just launched the Integrated Solutions Request Form ( http://ir4app.rutgers.edu/ir4FoodPub/IS/Is_reqForm.aspx ) . It can be found as the “Submit a Request” link near the top of the page here: http://ir4app.rutgers.edu/ir4FoodPub/IS_Search.aspx .  


Biopesticide Program
Research plans are being developed based on the priorities that were selected at the Biopesticide Workshop. In cooperation with university researchers, USDA-ARS and IR-4 Regional Coordinators, teleconferences have been held to develop studies on spotted wing drosophila in blueberry, downy mildew in organic basil, weed control screening, viruses and viroids in tomato and bacterial diseases of tomato.

Regulatory successes in 2018 included the registration of 2 new active ingredients with EPA.

KM1110 WDG is a water dispersible granule that contains the yeast Metschnikowia fructicola strain NRRL Y-27328 and prevents post-harvest decay in certain fruit and berries caused by Botrytis cinerea, Monilinia spp., and Rhizopus spp.

Pepino-mosaic virus strain CH2 isolate 1906 (Mild strain of pepino mosaic virus) for use in tomato. This weak strain of the virus is a form of vaccine that prevents the development of the disease Pepino Mosaic virus.
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 2017-34383-27100 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.