The Colorado Minor Crop Pest Management Program

Overview of the Colorado Minor Crop Pest Management Program and how to initiate research to expand pesticide labels to include minor crops.

The Minor Crop Pest Management Program (MCPMP) works to ensure that Colorado fruit and vegetable growers have the tools they need to manage pests successfully. The MCPMP is funded in part by the USDA IR-4 Project, a federal/state/private cooperative research program started in 1963 to increase the availability of crop protection chemicals to minor crop producers. A minor crop is defined as any crop grown on less than 300,000 acres nationally. To learn more about the USDA IR-4 Project visit http://pestdata.ncsu.edu/ir-4/.

Sandra McDonald serves as the Project leader and State Liaison Representative. Clark Oman serves as the Field Research Director and is responsible for managing the field and greenhouse trials.

The MCPMP is entering its fourth season. During the past three seasons data have been provided to support the registration of 18 chemicals in 12 different crops. This has involved 35 residue trials and 5 efficacy and performance trials. These include work on all three major classes of pesticides (fungicides, herbicides and insecticides) on a wide variety of fruit, vegetable and field crops. Fruit crops include apple, cherry, and pear. Vegetable crops include cabbage, cantaloupe, carrot, cilantro, cucumber, lettuce (head and leaf), onion, potato, and spinach. Field crops include dry bean, proso millet, sugar beet, and sunflower. Last year marked our first work with greenhouse tomatoes. Because of the success of those trials we will be conducting more greenhouse tomato trials this season and also a greenhouse bell pepper trial. Other trials on the list for this upcoming season include chili peppers and peanuts in the Arkansas Valley, malting barley, dry beans, cabbage, summer squash, and dill seed.

Of the twenty 24c Special Local Needs registrations from 2001 to date, five were IR-4 projects. Some of the field residue data for Distance Insect Growth Regulator for whitefly control on greenhouse tomatoes were collected in Colorado.

The goal of the MCPMP is to provide Colorado growers with safe, effective and economical tools to control pests on minor crops. Toward this end, MCPMP:

• Works with individual growers, grower organizations, nurserymen, crop protection companies, agricultural scientists, and extension personnel to identify specific pest control needs.
• Identifies new pest management strategies and control options.
• Prepares and submits a Pesticide Clearance Request (PCR) to IR 4 if a new pesticide or biopesticide is identified.
• Participates in setting national research priorities. The culmination of this is the annual IR 4 Food Use Workshop.
• Following the PCR selection and approval process, the MCPMP conducts field and greenhouse residue trials according to Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Good Laboratory Practice standards, a very strict “code of conduct” used to ensure the quality of the data used by the EPA to set tolerances for allowable levels of pesticide residue on food crops.
• Submits research reports to the Western Region IR 4 Project located at University of California, Davis. The data are reviewed and sent on to IR 4 headquarters at Rutgers University in New Jersey. MCPMP’s research is combined with that from other facilities throughout the United States and submitted to the EPA as a petition to request registration of the pesticide for use by growers.
• After a tolerance is set, MCPMP works with the CDA and the manufacturer to develop a label for the pesticide.

To view the IR-4 report card for Colorado visit: http://pestdata.ncsu.edu/ir-4/ReportCards/colorado.pdf. During 1998-2000, alone, Section 18’s for Colorado supported by IR-4 data helped to avoid an estimated $42.5 million in potential economic loss. If you are aware of a pesticide/crop combination that may be efficacious in Colorado but does not yet have a tolerance and label, contact Sandra McDonald or Clark Oman to initiate an pesticide clearance request. Or use the form at: http://www.colostate.edu/Depts/SoilCrop/extension/CEPEP/PCRform.htm. The required information includes: pesticide common name and manufacturer; crop; use site; local acreage; target pest; why is this use needed; dosage rate (active/acre); application parameters; and any supporting data such as phytotoxicity, efficacy and yield. Sandra McDonald Environmental and Pesticide Education Specialist Colorado State University Clark Oman Minor Crop Pest Management Program Colorado State University