Country Report: USA

Higher glyphosate prices, higher glyphosate demand, favorable crop prices and more fungicide usage all helped the US market in 2008 expand to its largest growth in crop protection value in more than a decade, according to research and tracking consultancy Phillips McDougall.

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High crop prices drove yield demands that made fungicide applications profitable for growers, and the adoption of triple stack corn fueled demand for glyphosate, which experienced favorable prices as well.

No-till agriculture is expected to expand in the US on the back of glyphosate and other non-selective herbicides, says Leonard Gianessi, director of the Crop Protection Research Institute in Washington, DC. In addition, penetration of post-patent products is expected to gain market share in the US as “there are no major pests in the US that can’t be controlled by a generic” now that azoxystrobin’s patent has expired, he says.

The total area planted in the US remained about the same, but farmers shifted to soybean cultivation in lieu of corn to mitigate the need for fertilizers, especially nitrogen, which was expensive last year. The combined effect of these factors made growing soybeans more profitable than corn, despite ethanol demand, for the first time in many years, according to Matthew Phillips, partner with Phillips McDougall.

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“In 2008 we believe that the US market increased by 8% in value, the first significant increase in the value of the market since the introduction of GM crops in 1996/1997,” he says.

US Farmers To Need Permit For Pesticides

It could get more difficult for American growers to apply crop protection products. Until earlier this year, US farmers were not required to file for approval to apply crop pesticides to their crops. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted exemptions to farmers in the 1972 Clean Water Act so it would not need to file for a permit with their respective states, which could be time consuming and make it difficult for farmers to be timely with unanticipated but necessary pesticide applications.

That point-source pollution exemption has been repealed by a three-member panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals (Ohio) in a complaint filed by environmental advocates. Farmers will be forced to obtain permits for pesticide applications made to, over or near bodies of water if the rule goes into effect. A petition filed by grower groups and crop protection advocates was still pending at presstime.

CropLife America, farm groups, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Senators Tom Harkin and Saxby Chambliss, the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, criticized the decision and asked EPA to challenge it. The EPA declined to challenge the decision, but the agency put a stay on the rule’s implementation until April 2011.

“We are being forced into a double regulatory situation,” CropLife America CEO Jay Vroom told Farm Chemicals International. “Our products are registered for use by EPA by the Office of Pesticide Programs. And now, even though Congress since the very earliest days of the Clean Water Act has always provided an agricultural exception for non-point source pollution of regulation of agricultural activities, this court has decided to also require farmers to be regulated as point-source polluters, so it’s like double jeopardy at its most basic unconstitutional nature.”

The new rule could reduce consumption of crop protection products in two ways: First, growers might decide to forgo discretionary pesticide applications to avoid the hassle of filing for a permit. Second, pest occurrences often arise unexpectedly. Without immediate pesticide applications, farmers might miss their window of optimum efficacy, or worse, could experience crop losses while they wait for approval.

“This ruling very much has the potential for creating so much additional liability concern for farmers as pesticide users — as well as administrative headaches — that it may well impact the use of our products that otherwise are approved and safe,” Vroom says.

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