Canadian farmers need the federal government to provide more
research support for pesticides to deal with serious pests and diseases of
fruit and vegetable crops, say Caig Hunter of the Ontario Fruit and Vegetable
Growers Association.
Hunter is probably the best-informed farm-organization
person on pesticide issues and politics.
He says the efficacy research the government used to handle
is “almost all gone now,” yet farmers’ needs are greater than ever.
One reason is resistance that develops to current
pesticides. Another is a large group of new products entering the market.
Hunter is also urging farmers to take more care in how they
use pesticides so resistance is less likely to develop.
“We must learn how to better conserve what we have,” he says
in a column he wrote for The Grower newspaper for OFVGA members.
“We need the research component to be brought back to
strength or we risk losing what has made us successful up to now,” he writes.
“We also cannot slow down our efforts to register as much as
we can to provide chemistry diversity to combat resistance,” Hunter says.
His comments are directed to the fruit and vegetable
industry, but apply to grains and oilseeds with products such as Roundup
beginning to lose their effectiveness as resistant weeds begin to multiply.
“We are ‘at war’ with the pests out there, and one mis-step
could be disaster,” Hunter says.
