Entries by Sandra Módenes

USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture invests over $7 million in big data, artificial intelligence, and other cyberinformatics research

USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture has awarded 12 grants totaling over $7 million to initiate research on big data analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and predictive technologies needed to keep U.S. agriculture on the leading edge of food and agricultural production. These grants are awarded through the USDA-NIFA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative […]

October 1, 2020 by

Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs: Paraquat sales banned in China

On 25th September, 2020, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued a notice on the strengthened regulations related to paraquat-related businesses. The notice stipulates that only paraquat manufacturers with a paraquat technical concentrate production license and pesticide registration for overseas sales are allowed to produce paraquat. According to Announcement No. 269 issued by […]

September 30, 2020 by

US EPA takes next step in review process for insecticide chlorpyrifos, making draft risk assessments available

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is taking an important step in the Agency’s review of chlorpyrifos. Meeting an important commitment made in the Agency’s July 2019 response to the related petition denial, EPA has released its draft risk assessments for chlorpyrifos for public review. These draft risk assessments are the next stage in the Federal […]

September 25, 2020 by

The output of China’s chemical pesticide technical production from Jan to Jul went down by 6.5%

According to CISource, in July 2020, the production output of China’s chemical pesticide technical was 170,000 tons, a year-on-year increase of 12.6%. From January to July 2020, the national output of chemical pesticide technical was 1.228 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of 6.5%.     Source: Agropages Image source: “Chinese flag” by Philip Jägenstedt is marked with CC BY […]

September 24, 2020 by

‘Foreign pest’ threat to tapioca crops in south India

Even as the Covid19 pandemic has battered the health and economy of the country, entomologists are alarmed at the “unauthorised introduction” of foreign invasive pests, which are destroying Indian crops and causing untold misery to our hapless farmers. Cassava mealybug (Phenacoccus manihoti Matile-Ferrero) is the latest of invasive pests, which has cast a shadow for […]

September 22, 2020 by

US EPA rules traizine herbicides are safe

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Friday announced a long-awaited interim decision regarding the reregistration of the triazines: atrazine, propazine, and simazine. After years of research and public comments from the agriculture community, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler declared these fundamental crop management tools safe for continued use in controlling resilient weeds. According to the Triazine […]

September 21, 2020 by

Brazil Anvisa maintains the decision to ban paraquat

By three votes to two, the Brazilian national health surveillance agency (Anvisa) maintained the decision to ban the active ingredient paraquat in Brazil, scheduled to come into force as of September 22, 2020, according to the rules of the Collegiate Directorship Resolution (RDC) 177/2017. As a result, the product cannot be produced or used in […]

September 18, 2020 by