U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established the strongest protections in agency history for over-the-top (OTT) dicamba application on dicamba-tolerant cotton and soybean crops. This decision responds directly to the strong advocacy of America's cotton and soybean farmers, particularly growers across the Cotton Belt, who have been clear and consistent about the critical challenges they face without access to this tool for controlling resistant weeds in their growing crops. Dicamba has already been on the market and available for sale and in wide, continuous use on farms across the United States regardless of and prior to today’s announcement, which is specifically focused on OTT application.
President Trump has remained deeply committed to supporting America's farmers and rural communities. This action reflects his administration's commitment to ensuring farmers have the tools they need to succeed while protecting the environment with the strongest safeguards ever imposed on OTT dicamba use. Cotton farmers across the southern United States have been particularly vocal about why they need OTT dicamba as herbicide-resistant weeds like Palmer amaranth have become nearly impossible to control with other available tools, threatening crop yields and farm viability. These "super weeds" can grow 3 inches per day and destroy entire fields. Without effective weed management during the growing season, these producers face devastating economic losses. This temporary approval reflects the voices of farmers who depend on this tool using informed restrictions and safety measures.
From day one of this review, EPA committed to gold-standard science and radical transparency. We conducted a thorough pesticide evaluation, using the best available data and reviewing hundreds of publicly available independent, peer-reviewed studies and real-world field results to conduct a comprehensive human health and ecological risk assessment. To be clear, these studies involved pesticide applicators with decades of intensive exposure, not typical consumers. EPA took these studies seriously, carefully considered them in our risk assessments, and built extra protections into the registration to reduce worker contact with the product.
Additionally, the ecological risks associated with dicamba drift and volatility are real. If not carefully mitigated, off-target movement of dicamba can damage sensitive plants and impact neighboring farms and natural ecosystems. These concerns are exactly why the strongest safeguards ever are essential.
Source : epa.gov