What was it all about? 

The generation of pesticide residue, efficacy and crop safety data is required to support label registration and minor use permit applications made to the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) which, when approved, provide access to safe and effective chemicals for the management of pests, weeds and diseases.

In May 2018, Hort Innovation announced the securing of more than $1 million in assistance grants under the Federal Government’s Access to Industry Uses of Agricultural and Veterinary (Agvet) Chemicals program. This funding was used, along with levy contributions, to generate the data required for a range of registration and minor use applications across a variety of horticulture crops through the project Generation of data for pesticide applications in horticulture crops 2018 (ST17000).

For the pineapple industry, this multi-industry investment produced the data required to support a Bayer DC-163 label registration, for the control of soil insects and white grubs.

Data generation for other applications relevant to the pineapple industry was also supported by the multi-industry project Generation of residue data for permit applications 2017 (MT17012) and Crop protection replacement for diuron in pineapple industry (ST15029).

ST15029 was responsible for conducting efficacy and residue trials in the investigation of weed control products to replace diuron. It used grant funds from the Australian Government’s Agvet program, with additional levy contributions and co-investment from Bayer Crop Science. Under ST15029, two new label registrations have been submitted for the pineapple industry.