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Can Canadian Producers Remain Competitive In Our Pest Management Regulatory Environment?

 
Canadian growers may find it challenging to remain globally competitive due to an accelerating reduction in access to pest management tools. Two ongoing issues have reduced the competitiveness of Canadian farmers for decades:
 
• The continuing loss of or lack of access to pest management products due to regulatory issues; and
 
• Regulatory impediments to the registration of new crop protection products.
A third issue, the loss of pest management tools due to pest resistance issues is an on-farm management issue; however, the Canadian regulatory environment has exacerbated the extent and seriousness of specific pest problems.
 
Two recent examples of regulatory issues that have had a direct effect on the pulse industry are:
 
• The termination of streptomycin use in dry beans; and
 
• The proposed phase-out of all agricultural uses of the neonicotinoid insecticide, imidacloprid, over a three to five year period.
 
Termination of streptomycin use on dry beans
 
Pulse Canada has worked with Health Canada since 2004 to allow for the importation of dry bean seed treated with streptomycin into Canada from the United States (U.S.). Health Canada’s most recent letter of approval expired December 31, 2016. Pulse Canada requested continued support for the importation of streptomycin-treated dry bean seed beyond the deadline; however an extension was not granted. Shortly thereafter, an article appearing in the Manitoba Producer noted that, “Health Canada’s PMRA has not banned the import of streptomycin treated bean seeds … growers may import and use streptomycin-treated bean seeds for their 2017 crop.” Health Canada’s apparent lack of clarity on this issue left those in the Canadian dry bean industry in a state of confusion regarding the status of streptomycin use on dry bean.
 
In 2017, Canadian dry bean importers purchased untreated dry bean seed from U.S. exporters. To do otherwise would have meant taking the risk of having streptomycin-treated bean seed held at the border by the Canadian Border Services Agency.
 
Proposed termination of imidacloprid use
 
In its proposal to phase out all agricultural uses of imidacloprid, the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) takes a different position than that of the U.S. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concluded in its own assessment of imidacloprid that it was “… in general agreement with recent findings published by Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency …” yet the EPA made no proposal to phase out the use of imidacloprid in the U.S.
 
The loss of imidacloprid seed treatments for the control of insect pests in pulse crops may have a considerable impact on the competitiveness of Canadian pulse producers. Not only may U.S.-based pulse producers continue to access imidacloprid in an open and competitive insecticide market, a phase-out of its use in Canada would leave one company with a virtual monopoly in pulse insecticide seed treatments. The extent to which seed treatment prices could rise in Canada relative to other pulse exporting nations, and to what extent Canadian pulse production margins decline relative to those of U.S.-based growers has yet to be determined.
 
Source : Albertapulse

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