The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved new five-year registrations for two dicamba products and extended the registration of an additional dicamba product. All three registrations include new control measures to ensure these products can be used effectively while protecting the environment, including non-target plants, animals and other crops not tolerant to dicamba, the agency announced on Tuesday.
While these dicamba products cannot be applied by aerial application, this decision is important for agriculture overall, and a major win for science over unsubstantiated claims made by environmental groups. The tactics used by environmental groups to fight against dicamba are similar to the tactics they use to fight against many products that are applied by air, such as chlorpyrifos and paraquat.
“With today’s decision, farmers now have the certainty they need to make plans for their 2021 growing season,” EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a statement. “After reviewing substantial amounts of new information, conducting scientific assessments based on the best available science, and carefully considering input from stakeholders we have reached a resolution that is good for our farmers and our environment.”
The EPA approved new registrations for two “over-the-top” (OTT) dicamba products—Bayer CropScience’s XtendiMax with VaporGrip Technology and BASF’s Engenia Herbicide—and extended the registration for an additional OTT dicamba product, Syngenta’s Tavium Plus VaporGrip Technology. These registrations are only for use on dicamba-tolerant (DT) cotton and soybeans and will expire in 2025.
To manage off-site movement of dicamba, EPA’s 2020 registration features important control measures, including:
- Requiring an approved pH-buffering agent (also called a Volatility Reduction Agent or VRA) be tank mixed with OTT dicamba products prior to all applications to control volatility.
- Requiring a downwind buffer of 240 feet and 310 feet in areas where listed species are located.
- Prohibiting OTT application of dicamba on soybeans after June 30 and cotton after July 30.
- Simplifying the label and use directions so that growers can more easily determine when and how to properly apply dicamba.
The 2020 registration labels also provide new flexibilities for growers and states. For example, there are opportunities for growers to reduce the downwind spray buffer for soybeans through use of certain approved hooded sprayers as an alternative control method. The EPA also declared that it recognizes and supports the important authority FIFRA section 24 gives the states for issuing locally appropriate regulations for pesticide use. If a state wishes to expand the federal OTT uses of dicamba to better meet special local needs, the agency will work with them to support their goals.
In reviewing the dicamba registrations from Bayer, BASF and Syngenta, the agency stated that it reviewed substantial amounts of new information and conducted assessments based on the best available science, including making Effect Determinations under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). With this information and input, the EPA concluded that its registration actions meet Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) registration standards. The EPA believes that these new analyses address the concerns expressed about the EPA’s 2018 dicamba registrations in the June 2020 U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Further, EPA concluded that with the control measures now required on labels, these actions either do not affect or are not likely to adversely affect endangered or threatened species.
In 2018, approximately 41% of U.S. soybean acreage was planted with dicamba-tolerant (DT) seed and almost 70% of U.S. cotton acreage was planted with DT seed in 2019.
Following reports of damage resulting from the off-site movement of dicamba, the EPA amended its dicamba registration labels in 2017 and in 2018. In June 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit vacated the registrations for three dicamba products: XtendiMax with VaporGrip Technology, Engenia Herbicide and DuPont FeXapan Herbicide. As a result of the court’s decision, the EPA issued cancellation orders outlining limited circumstances under which existing stocks of the three affected products could be distributed and used until July 31, 2020.
Commodity groups, such as National Cotton Council, praised the announcement, while environmental activist groups criticized the EPA’s decision. The Center for Biological Diversity’s Nathan Donley declared to Politico Pro’s agriculture policy newsletter, Morning Agriculture, that “the EPA has shown such callous indifference to the damage dicamba has caused to farmers and wildlife alike, and has been so desperate to appease the pesticide industry, it has zero credibility when it comes to pesticide safety.”
 has approved new five-year registrations for two dicamba products and extended the registration of an additional dicamba product. All three registrations include new control measures to ensure these products can be used effectively while protecting the environment, including non-target plants, animals and other crops not tolerant to dicamba, the agency announced on Tuesday.){kind=small}
