PMEP Home Page IR-4: Minor Use Registration IR-4 Center for Minor Crop Pest Management

     The IR-4 Project is a partnership between the USDA (CSREES, ARS) and the land grant university system with its Headquarters based at Rutgers University and Regional Offices at the University of California, Cornell University, University of Florida and Michigan State University. Research laboratories and field research centers are located in twenty-five states with representation in all 50 states and territories. IR-4 conducts field trials and residue analyses under GLP to develop food safety data on minor crops, primarily with reduced risk products and biopesticides. Minor crops are high value crops such as fruits, vegetables, nursery plants and others, but low acreage compared to corn, wheat, soybeans and cotton. Minor crops are worth $40 billion, are produced in all states and make up 40% of the total value of all U.S. crops*. Registrants have had little economic incentive to pursue pest control product registrations on minor crops. IR-4 has worked successfully to fill this gap in pest control regulatory clearances on minor crops.

• The Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) of 1996 set new standards for food safety. The law gives added protections from pesticide exposure on food, especially for infants and children. An EPA review of significant pesticides used on food crops is underway. Some pesticides used on many important minor crops such as fruits and vegetables are being removed from the market or are having their uses curtailed.
  
  
• IR-4 is working to make alternative pest control products available that are safer and can replace those that are lost due to FQPA. To accomplish this goal, IR-4 works in partnership with grower and commodity groups, state university extension and researchers, USDA scientists, industry, and the EPA. Each partner is a significant link in the chain needed to obtain a pest control product registration for minor crops.
  
  
• IR-4 has achieved 5000 pest control clearances on food crops, over 5200 clearances on ornamental crops and over 100 biopesticide clearances to date. IR-4 and EPA recently agreed on decreased data requirements for new reduced risk pesticides and saved $1 million in research costs. These savings were redirected to additional priority needs. IR-4 is working cooperatively with other nations on the exchange of registration support data, saving even more research dollars, thus assisting U.S. growers and protecting the public health.

     As FQPA restricts or eliminates the use of certain pesticides on food crops, the work done by the IR-4 Project becomes critical to maintain the quality and quantity of fruit and vegetable production in the United States.

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For more information relative to pesticides and their use in New York State, please contact the PMEP staff at:   5123 Comstock Hall Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853-0901 (607) 255-1866

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