Minor Use Pesticides, Registration

Abstract

Abstract The Interregional Research Project No. 4 (IR‐4 Project) was organized 37 years ago by the Directors of the State Agricultural Experiment Stations (SAES) to obtain regulatory clearances for crop protection chemicals on minor food crops when the economic incentives for the registrants precluded private sector investment. IR‐4 has been administered by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Cooperative State Research Education and Extension Service (CSREES) since its inception in 1963. The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) component of the USDA established a companion minor use program in 1976 to provide further program support. The objectives of the program were expanded in 1977 to include registration of pest control products for the protection of nursery, floral, forestry and turf crops and again in 1982 when the objective of clearance of biological control agents or biopesticides was added. Also in 1982, the project added a Minor Use Animal Drug component to the work effort. The animal drug portion of the program became a separate entity several years later and continues today as a separate project funded by CSREES. The minor crop program works as a model government funded program due to a unique partnership formed between the USDA (CSREES and ARS), the IR‐4 Headquarters and Regional Laboratory staff, the land grant university system, the crop protection industry, commodity and grower groups, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation to bring crop protection solutions to minor crop growers.