“Towards the end of May, we experienced unforeseen and unprecedented volume declines in three out of our four operating regions, as our channel partners rapidly reduced inventory levels,” CEO Mark Douglas said in a statement.

The regions hit were North America, Latin America, and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

The stock, down over 23 per cent this year, was trading 8.4 per cent lower at $95.45 in morning trade (all figures US$).

The company reduced its full-year revenue forecast range to $5.2 billion to $5.4 billion, from $6.08 billion to $6.22 billion.

At midpoint, it also expects second-quarter revenue to be lower by about 30 per cent compared to its previous outlook.

In the prior quarter, FMC’s sales took a hit due to drought in southern Brazil and Argentina, lower demand in EMEA and channel inventory management in India.

Credit Suisse analysts lowered their full-year profit estimate for the company by 14 per cent to $6.57 per share to reflect ongoing inventory destocking.

Philadelphia-based FMC, which sells insecticides and herbicides, added on Monday that its adjusted core profit for the second quarter is expected to be between $185 million and $195 million, nearly 50 per cent down from its earlier expectation.

Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) for the year is now expected to be between $1.3 billion and $1.4 billion, compared with an earlier forecast of $1.5 billion to $1.56 billion.

— Reporting for Reuters by Sourasis Bose in Bangalore.

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Oregon-based processor Grain Millers, whose Canadian operations include its oat mill at Yorkton, Sask., said in a memo Tuesday to growers that the Canadian National Millers Association has asked all member businesses to advise growers of their lambda-cy policies.

The move comes after a 2021 re-evaluation decision by Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) took effect at the end of April this year, prohibiting the use of lambda-cy on some crops altogether and the use of any lambda-cy-treated crops as livestock feed.

“Now, while most of you are growing your oats for human consumption, the issue lies in the byproducts that are produced in the milling process,” Grain Millers’ Yorkton procurement manager, Scott Shiels, said in the memo.

“For us, that is primarily the oat hulls, and screenings, which are almost exclusively sold into the feed market.”

Thus, he said, the company is “being forced to prohibit the use of lambda-cyhalothrin on any oats being sold to Grain Millers.”

From now on, he said, “prior to delivering any oats in the future,” growers will be required to sign a delivery affidavit which will include a statement to that effect.

Lambda-cy products currently registered in Canada for use in oats include Syngenta’s Matador and Warrior and Adama’s Zivata against grasshoppers, and Adama’s Silencer against armyworm.

Since April 29, however, those products’ labels all specifically prohibit their use on any crops that may be destined for feed, including crop screenings or other byproducts or aftermath. Treated fields also cannot be grazed by livestock, nor cut for hay or forage.

Among other prohibited products, Grain Millers’ memo also names Karate — a Syngenta insecticide in markets outside Canada — and Saber, a pour-on and ear-tag insecticide registered in Canada to protect cattle against insect pests.

Since late April, grain grower organizations have warned that because any crop entering the grain handling system is eligible for use as livestock feed, the use of lambda-cy “poses a risk of becoming an off-label use.”

Grower groups since then have also advised farmers to discuss any potential related market risk issues directly with their grain buyers. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Among the pests he cited were grasshoppers, flea beetles and pea leaf weevils. 

Tansey said the grasshopper hatch is well underway in Saskatchewan, but recent rains could change how much of a problem they become. 

“We’ve had some rain in the south of the province and we are still waiting to see what… that has done with these grasshopper nests. The moisture can contribute to disease in these animals and contribute to direct mortality,” he said, noting there have been some reports already of crop damage, 

Tansey stressed the need for vigilance with farmers checking their crops and the surrounding areas for signs of grasshoppers and other pests. He said there has been estimates of 50 to 70 grasshopper nymphs per square meter in ditches, which normal rates tend to be around 40. 

There have also been reports of striped and crucifer flea beetles in the province, especially in the central area. 

“We are hearing about damage to seedling canola in the Saskatoon area,” Tansey said, also noting large numbers of striped flea beetles in the province’s northeast. That said, he cautioned there are still few reports to go on at this time and there was still something of a chance the problem might not be as bad as expected. 

“There’s no replacement for getting out and seeing what’s happening,” he said. 

Pea leaf weevils have been reported as well, though it’s still on the early side to fully know how much of a problem they could become this year. 

“There was a pretty dramatic increase in the number of pea leaf weevil numbers in the northeast last year,” he said, noting monitoring just recently started for this year. 

Some farmers recently began spraying for different insect pests in the province, he said, but added that when reports and numbers have firmed up, the province will make the insect situation well known to them. 

— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg.

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The crop chem and seed company announced Friday it will have a “limited amount” of its lambda-cy-based products Matador 120EC and Voliam Xpress available in the West in time for the 2023 growing season, but “with a focus on horticulture and pulse crops.”

The products will also still be available in Eastern Canada, with “a focus on horticulture crops.”

The company has issued revised labels for those products effective Saturday (April 29), in line with new rules from Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA).

PMRA’s re-evaluation decision for lambda-cyhalothrin — published April 29, 2021, to take effect 24 months from that date — requires that crops treated with the chemical must not be fed to, or grazed by, livestock in Canada — and that includes any harvested grain, screenings, hay, forage, silage, byproducts or aftermath.

Thus, on top of its other label-approved uses, the new Matador label provides for the product’s use in crops such as wheat, oats, barley, canola, corn (field, sweet and popping), soybeans, alfalfa, timothy, apples, carrots, potatoes, beans, peas, chickpeas, lentils and fava beans — but it specifically prohibits each of those crops from then being fed to livestock.

The new Voliam Express label, among other approved uses, also still allows for the product’s use in crops such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, beans, peas, lentils, chickpeas, soybeans, corn, canola, flax and mustard — but also specifically prohibits each of those crops’ subsequent use as feed.

Duane Johnson, head of sales for Syngenta Canada, said the company’s focus on pulse and hort crops for lambda-cy in Western Canada this year is based on available statistics and discussions with industry associations, which suggest the “majority” of horticulture and pulse crops go to human consumption.

However, “it’s important to note that screenings of pulse crops that were treated with lambda-cyhalothrin cannot be used as feed,” Anna Shulkin, head of crop protection regulatory and stewardship matters for Syngenta Canada, said in that company’s release Friday. “We have been sure to communicate the label restrictions and will continue to do so.”

Syngenta, Johnson said, wants “to ensure we are supporting as many growers as possible during the upcoming growing season in protecting their crops from forecasted pest pressure while being compliant with the label’s feed restrictions.”

Growers should review the new labels and are “encouraged to consult with commodity associations” prior to using lambda-cy products, Syngenta said.

‘Use responsibly’

Syngenta’s move is a step back from the decision it announced last fall to not sell any lambda-cy products at all in Western Canada for the 2023 season. A company representative said last November it had made that decision to “avoid any confusion and to support 2023 business planning with our customers.”

Adama Canada, which also markets lambda-cy under the names Silencer and Zivata, undertook a similar recall to update its product labels. Adama had said in November it wasn’t sure it would have those products available in Western Canada for 2023.

But Adama last month announced it would bring back those products, with revised labels to meet the new PMRA requirements. The company said in March it has “confidence in our retail partners to provide good advice to growers and we trust growers themselves to use the product responsibly and within permitted guidelines.”

Shulkin noted Friday that Syngenta’s September 2021 submission to PMRA, seeking reinstatement of “as many of the livestock grain feed uses as possible” for its lambda-cy products, is still under review at that agency.

Syngenta, she said, “will continue to support this submission until completed.”

PMRA’s 2021 re-evaluation decision also cancels lambda-cy products’ use on bulb vegetables, lettuce and condiment mustard, as well as any oilseeds other than flax, canola, rapeseed and oilseed mustard.

‘Unmanageable’

PMRA’s decision has seen crop commodity groups scramble to advise growers on alternative pest controls or other chemistries wherever they exist, but also warn that the decision will leave other growers in a tight spot this season.

SaskBarley, for one, has said the required label change “results in an unmanageable risk mitigation option as many crops are grown for both food and feed, with no segregation by food or feed in our bulk grain handling system.”

Grain Farmers of Ontario also noted there “currently is no process in place to divert harvested crops from livestock feed end-users,” meaning any lambda-cy applications on edible beans, grains and oilseeds “may be considered an off-label use.”

The Manitoba Crop Alliance had noted that for sunflower growers in that province, Matador was until now the lone insecticide control for lygus bug, leaving “no current chemical options.”

The group and the provincial ag department said they would work with industry to see if an emergency use registration would be possible for the 2023 growing season. Seeking a full label expansion rather than an emergency use for any product not now registered for use on sunflowers would be an “extensive” process, the MCA said.

The provincial agriculture ministers from Saskatchewan and Alberta in February wrote to their federal health and agriculture counterparts, urging them to encourage the PMRA to reconsider.

“It is possible for the PMRA to enact an emergency reinstatement of the product’s use to ensure our farmers can use it for the coming growing season and give it time to make a more informed decision, but we would need that immediately,” David Marit and Nate Horner said in a statement at the time. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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In late October ANSES cleared the use of phosphine tablets used for killing pests through fumigation, but said they could not be “in direct contact with cereals,” thereby threatening exports to some of France’s largest markets, including Algeria, Egypt and Morocco.

The ban on direct contact of phosphine with cereals was due to take effect on April 25.

But after government intervention, ANSES amended the authorization on Thursday to include a reference to an EU regulation that says that maximum residue limits for pesticides do not apply to non-EU country exports if it is possible to demonstrate that the treatments are required or accepted.

Grain exporters group Synacomex praised the move.

“Synacomex welcomes the fact that the European regulation is being respected, allowing French cereals to continue supplying customers who rely on us,” said Christelle Tailhardat, Synacomex’s secretary general.

The pesticide is still not permitted in direct contact with cereals for European Union destinations, the document showed.

If inhaled in large doses, phosphine can cause respiratory, neurological and gastrointestinal disorders.

Canada allows the use of phosphine and similar fumigants in stored commodities, but a 2015 re-evaluation by Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency added a requirement for buffer zones of at least 50 metres between treated storage and spaces occupied by people or livestock.

Canada’s buffer zone rules, in place since July 2016, also apply to stored commodities on ships while in port, and to fumigated rail cars parked at terminals or during “prolonged stops” en route.

— Reporting for Reuters by Sybille de La Hamaide and Gus Trompiz. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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In late October ANSES cleared the use of phosphine tablets used for killing pests though fumigation, but said they could not be “in direct contact with cereals,” thereby threatening exports to markets that require the process, including Algeria, Egypt and Morocco.

“There is nothing to worry about for exports, these will continue. It’s good for our exporters, it’s good for food security of these (importing) countries,” Trade Minister Olivier Becht said, adding that steps would be taken by April 25 when the ANSES decision takes effect.

France intends to refer to an EU regulation that says that maximum residue limits for pesticides do not apply to non-EU country exports if it is possible to demonstrate that the treatments are required or accepted, Becht said.

France will act at the request of importing countries that require the molecule, Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau told Parliament.

He said that EU countries including Germany and Bulgaria were also using the pesticide on grain exports to Algeria.

If inhaled in large doses, phosphine can cause respiratory, neurological and gastrointestinal disorders.

The questions in Parliament followed a weekend report by l’Opinion newspaper that said French grain exports would come to a halt from April 25.

With the deadline looming, French grain producers had called for a swift response from the government.

“We are depriving ourselves of a quarter of the outlets for French cereals,” Eric Thirouin, head of French grain growers group AGPB, told Reuters.

Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, will be the main beneficiary if the ban is confirmed, Thirouin added.

Exports put at risk by the ANSES decision amount to about four billion euros (C$5.91 billion) in trade surplus, compared with a total grain trade surplus of about 11 billion euros last year, he said.

Canada allows the use of phosphine and similar fumigants in stored commodities, but a 2015 re-evaluation by Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency has required buffer zones of at least 50 metres between treated storage and spaces occupied by people or livestock.

Canada’s buffer zone rules, in place since July 2016, also apply to stored commodities on ships while in port and fumigated rail cars parked at terminals or during “prolonged stops” en route.

— Reporting for Reuters by Sybille de La Hamaide and Gus Trompiz. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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The consumer watchdog agency was motivated to bring the case in part because rising costs and supply chain disruptions from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have put economic pressure on farmers, an agency official told Reuters.

Chinese-owned Syngenta and U.S.-based Corteva paid distributors not to offer farmers generic pesticides, herbicides and fungicides after the companies’ patents on six chemical ingredients expired, the FTC said.

As a result, farmers have paid around 20 per cent more, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars a year, for the companies’ products, the agency official said.

“By paying off distributors to block generic producers from the market, these giants have deprived farmers of cheaper and more innovative options,” FTC chair Lina Khan said in a press release.

Corteva spokesperson Kris Allen said in an email that the company believes the complaint has no basis.

“We will vigorously defend our position that Corteva’s customer marketing programs are fully compliant with the antitrust laws,” Allen said.

Syngenta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The attorneys general of 10 states joined in the suit, the FTC said.

Prices for chemical weed and pest suppressants have risen sharply this year, sending farmers hunting for alternatives.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture collected public comments on competition issues in the agricultural inputs sector, including pesticides, seeds and fertilizer.

— Leah Douglas reports on U.S. agriculture and energy policy for Reuters from Washington, D.C.

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“I’ll be focused on improving honeybee health to improve sustainable agriculture,” said Dr. Sarah Wood, an associate professor of veterinary pathology at the University of Saskatchewan’s Western College of Veterinary Medicine.

“We know that honeybees are really important for Canadian agriculture. They’re contributing $5.5 billion worth of pollination services every year. If we keep our honeybees healthy, in turn, that will keep our crops healthy and productive.”

Wood was a veterinarian in a companion animal practice in Red Deer before turning to honeybee health and she did her PhD on one of the most contentious issues in crop production today: honeybee exposure to neonicotinoids.

The issue of neonics — a widely used group of insecticides that includes clothianidin and imidacloprid — has been controversial in both Canada and abroad. The European Commission has restricted their use, a move that has been blamed for a decline in yields and acreage of rapeseed.

There were fears of similar restrictions here but, while Health Canada has limited their use in horticulture, it concluded that neonic seed treatments for canola did not pose a threat to pollinators or other insects.

“We know that more than 95 per cent of our canola is grown from seed that is treated with a neonicotinoid, so we know that honeybees are being exposed to very low levels of these insecticides when they pollinate canola,” said Wood.

“At the same time, we also know that honeybees do very well on canola, that they are productive, and produce a lot of great canola honey.”

Keeping levels safe

“Beyond that level, then we could start seeing decreased honeybee production or decreased overwintering survival of colonies. But as long as we keep our concentration within that safe range, farmers will have the ability to protect their crops by using insecticides, and we will keep our pollinators healthy.”

A post-doc student in Wood’s lab will continue her research, looking at the level of neonicotinoids in honeybee colonies that pollinate canola and comparing them to ones that do not pollinate canola.

“We need more strong evidence to truly show what are the levels that honeybees are being exposed to in the pollen that they are collecting in the nectar,” she said.

Cutting winter losses

“It’s incredibly difficult for a beekeeper to stay in business when they are losing 50 per cent of their animals every year,” said Wood. “We urgently need to find some solutions to improve our overwintering mortality here in Canada.”

As it turns out, varroa mites — parasites that infest hives and feed on bees — liked the drought conditions last summer.

“Because of that warmer weather, the mites were able to build up, and the fall mite treatments were not as effective to bring those mite levels down,” Wood said.

Beekeeping in Western Canada is especially challenging because the field season is so short.

“It’s only four months of intensive beekeeping and maybe we can expand our research over the winter to look at the effects of varroa miticides on winter bees. We can be doing research in the winter as well as the summer.”

Wood and the others in her lab also helped develop veterinary oversight for beekeepers in 2018. Numerous medications require a veterinary prescription but many vets had no experience prescribing medication for bees.

“There became a need for more training of practicing vets in common honeybee diseases and how to prescribe antibiotics,” she said. “We were able to fulfil that need because we had kind of a head start.”

Infectious diseases

Wood and some of her team members have backgrounds as veterinarians, so their strength is in infectious disease research.

They are studying bacterial diseases in honeybees, including European foulbrood and American foulbrood.

“These diseases are mostly controlled by antibiotics,” said Wood. “We are investigating … the best ways for beekeepers to apply antibiotics to treat these diseases and control their spread in their operations and minimize the potential for antibiotic resistance.”

Her lab is also studying nosema, a gut parasite that afflicts honeybees.

“We’re looking at ways to improve diagnostics for that, so that beekeepers can more accurately diagnose when this parasite is becoming a problem in their colonies.”

The lab is using histology (looking at tissues using a microscope), something commonly done in human medicine as well as livestock, but not for insects.

“We’re trying to develop the histology of male bees (drones) to look at their reproductive organs and understand whether pesticide exposure could affect the development of their testes and use that in improving pesticide risk assessments for the future,” she said.

The research relies heavily on the co-operation and participation of western Canadian beekeepers.

“Beekeepers have been very supportive — sending us samples, communicating their problems,” said Wood. “The research chair is just another person that can contribute to the existing research community and co-ordinate efforts so that together, we can really start to solve some of the challenging issues for beekeepers.”

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“Talking to the PMRA, it was very obvious that it was completely unaware of our farming practices and neonic seed treatments,” said Sekulic, who grows wheat, canola, and peas on his family’s operation near Rycroft.

“It didn’t seem to know our use rates, our volumes, our reasons for use, or how specific seed treatment is in regard to the insects targeted.”

The agency announced last summer that it plans to phase out clothianidin and thiamethoxam in the next few years because they harm aquatic insects. That sparked deep concern, especially from canola growers as the two neonicotinoid insecticides are widely used in seed treatments for flea beetles and there are no ready alternatives.

Sekulic, an Alberta Wheat director and Grain Growers of Canada rep, was part of a group that met with agency officials on Nov. 30. By that time, the officials had realized how upset farmers were about the proposed phase-out, he said during a panel discussion at FarmTech.

“They started the meeting wary of what we were going to say,” said Sekulic. “I think they’re very unprepared for the backlash that the neonic file is getting.”

They also may not have expected that the farmers in the meeting would go well beyond a ‘we need this’ pitch and put forward a science-based case for not banning the two neonics.

For example, Sekulic showed them photos on his phone of treated seed and explained that because of seed treatments, he hasn’t used foliar insecticides for years.

“I wanted to show them just how minuscule the margin of exposure is to seed treatments in this — and they asked lots of questions,” he said.

The group also pointed out the agency’s neonic study that examined the environmental threat used small sample sizes. As well, the Eastern Canada weather data used to assess the risks simply doesn’t apply in Western Canada.

Agency overloaded

But the meeting didn’t end with finger pointing — rather, the group offered to assist the agency by bringing it information on how neonics are used. The officials cautiously accepted the offer of help, said Sekulic, and since then both the relationship and communication has improved.

That prompted him and the other two FarmTech panellists to urge audience members to make their voice heard in matters like this.

Producers need to share details with scientists who work in labs all day, said Maria Trainer, managing director of regulatory affairs at CropLife Canada.

“The kinds of things that you do on the farm can be mind blowing to someone like me,” she said. “Just going in and talking to the regulator about what you do and how you do it — that matters and is really important.”

It also helps to understand the work of a body like the Pest Management Regulatory Agency — and the conditions it works under.

Three years ago, the agency was criticized by the federal auditor general for taking too long to cancel registrations of pesticides shown to have unacceptable risks.

“Part of the problem is the PMRA was slammed by an auditor general’s report and it demanded tight timelines and deadlines,” said Sekulic.

But that can be a detriment to good science, he said, suggesting the agency might want to revise its timelines so it doesn’t have to re-evaluate every product every 15 years.

“From what I understand, pharmaceuticals have a slightly different timeline period and are done at longer intervals, until they’re only done if something triggers a special re-evaluation,” he said.

Reviews take a long time, and with about 400 farm chemical products on the market, there’s no way for the agency to review them all, said Trainer.

What often happens is the agency starts re-evaluations with no hope of completing them all on time, she said.

“We mapped out their re-evaluations for the next 20 years,” she said. “By 2028, they will have 358 re-evaluations on the books. They’re only publishing 10 to 15 a year. That’s not a sustainable workload.”

Speaking up

Sekulic would like to see the agency co-ordinate more with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency when approving new chemistries — and talk more to growers and involve them in the process.

The agency does good work and is committed to science, but there is definitely room for improvement, he said.

“I want a strong, robust regulatory body. It is essential to domestic users and export markets that hazards and risks regarding the chemicals we use are safe.”

But not only is the agency supposed to review products every 15 years, it is also supposed to do a special review whenever a member nation in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development deregisters a product that is registered in Canada, said Mark Walker, policy manager with the Canadian Canola Growers Association.

“The issue with this is that it doesn’t matter when the last time it was reviewed,” said Walker.

The canola growers’ association also had concerns with the agency’s science in the proposed neonic ban. So it hired a toxicologist who found issues with its review study, including a small sample size.

The alternatives — or lack of them — also have to be considered, he added.

“If we lose access to these products, we will have to use different chemistries to compensate,” said Walker. “They will have increased costs, increased environmental impacts and that needs to be taken into account if the PMRA is able to do so.”

His organization wants the agency to consider the alternative to a ban, namely ways to mitigate the risk of the neonics getting into water bodies.

But like Sekulic and Trainer, Walker noted the agency is stretched in doing all the reviews on the 15-year schedule.

“It is resource constrained, it is time constrained, so getting there is difficult,” he said.

Walker encouraged producers to weigh in online any time there is consultation about the chemistries they use. In the neonics consultation, farmers’ responses were noticed and were very important, he said.

The threat of the potential loss of pesticides shouldn’t be ignored, said Trainer.

“Pesticides and fungicides are an example of tools we are losing at a rate that far exceeds their replacements,” she said. “If you don’t speak up about what you do, somebody else is going to come in and speak about what you do.”

The agency is currently looking at ways to encourage stakeholder engagement, and farmers should take advantage, she said.

“This is huge. This is a great opportunity to get everyone involved and help fix this issue,” she said.

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Following a review, Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) has proposed phasing out Imidacloprid over the next three to five years.

“Our re-evaluation found no risk for human health,” said Scott Kirby, director general of the environmental assessment directorate with Health Canada. “But our environmental risk assessment found that it does pose a potential risk to terrestrial and aquatic insects.”

Aquatic insects are vital in ecological communities, particularly in nutrient cycling. Spray drifts and run-off of Imidacloprid may result in toxic effects to aquatic insects, even though the chemical does not pose a risk to fish, amphibians, algae or aquatic plants. The risks were determined by environmental modelling and water monitoring.

The chemical also poses a risk to birds and small mammals that consume treated seed. Imidacloprid is used in greenhouses, ornamental production, commercial vegetables, potatoes, vineyards, corn, canola, and pulse production. The PMRA is seeking to phase out the use of Imidacloprid in trees, greenhouses, outdoor agriculture, commercial seed treatment, turf, and lawns. The chemical poses no risks when used around buildings, as an application for tree injection, or in flea, tick and lice collars for cats and dogs.

Imidacloprid is used in products such as Sombrero, Stress Shield, and Alias. It is a minor use product in pulses, but is quite important in soybeans.

Kirby said he cannot speak on the implications of the phase-out for agricultural producers, but Health Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada are looking to find alternative chemicals that can replace Imidacloprid. The two agencies are also looking to determine strategies for transition to other products, if available.

All stakeholders have had the opportunity to engage in the consultation, said Nevin Rosaasen, program and policy specialist with the Alberta Pulse Growers Commission.

“Growers should be voicing their concerns to their grower organization and to any type of body that represents their concerns or their bottom line,” said Rosaasen. “Growers themselves are also welcome to submit an individual submission to Health Canada.”

Many groups are making submissions — including pulse organizations from Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario. The Canola Council of Canada and the Grain Growers of Canada are also talking to their members.

“Keep in mind that right now all we have is a proposed decision and that’s being consulted on,” said Kirby. “We’re going to get a lot of information from grower groups and the agricultural industry that will give us information on alternatives, as well as what kind of impact this will have on farmers.”

Under the Pest Control Products Act, all registered pesticides must be re-evaluated by the PMRA to ensure they continue to meet modern health and environmental safety standards. While the proposed phase-out deals only with Imidacloprid, the neonicotinoids Thiomethoxam and Clothiandin are under review. The phase-out of Thiomethoxam could have a definite impact on pulse growers, since there is no alternative for pea leaf weevil control.

Comments can be made until March 23 at Health Canada’s website at hc-sc.gc.ca (search ‘Imidacloprid’).

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