The three core areas of activity for IRAC are traditional Crop Protection, Plant Biotechnology and Public Health. Crop Protection is the area where historically IRAC has been most active and over the years there have been a number of different Working Groups focussing on various potential resistance issues or tackling these as they arise. Currently there are three Working Groups sitting as part of the Crop Protection Team: Chewing Pests, Sucking and Piercing Pests and Nematodes. Further information and resources developed by the WGs can be found by clicking on the WG links above.
Role of the Crop Protection Team:
- Developing and maintaining standard guidance on resistance management for crop protection products for relevant crop-pest matrices
- Working on topics cutting across the Crop Protection WGs, e.g. Mixtures Statement, Seed Treatment Statement, phenology charts with windows approach to MoA rotation, MoA icons and IRM language on labels and resistance monitoring
- Serve as a clearing house for Country Group Liaison activities such as driving crop protection guidance to country and regional IRAC teams and coordinating annual country team reports
- Advising the IRAC Executive on emerging issues and trends in crop protection resistance that may warrant IRAC action
- Working with the IRAC Outreach team on communication and education needs and logistics
Mode of Action Labelling Guidance from CropLife International
The inclusion of MoA information on product labels, supported by training and other resources, is critical to ensure growers have the information they need to follow resistance management guidelines. CropLife International have published MoA Labelling Guidance
References:
Declaration of Ljubljana – The Impact of a Declining European Pesticide Portfolio on Resistance Management (Bielza P, 2008)
