AgroPages-Brazil MAPA under pressure to release emamectin benzoate‏-Agricultural news

Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply(MAPA) has been under pressure by farmers and agrochemical companies to set the list of states which will allow the use of Emamectin benzoate during the 2015/2016 crop season. The product, authorized in Brazil just on emergency basis, has shown to be most effective in fight against helicoverpa armigera.

States such as Bahia, Piauí and Mato Grosso - which have suffered the most with the plague last year - requested for the renewal of the emergency allowance, at the 80th Regular Meeting of the Thematic Chamber of Agricultural Inputs on August 17, 2015.

The executive-director of the Brazilian Association of Generic Agrochemicals, Tulio de Oliveira, warns that the registered products which could replace the benzoate still do no present a good relationship between cost and benefits: "The efficiency for the farmer is not only technical efficiency, but translates into the expense of purchase of the products versus the dose per hectare, and in this sense benzoate has its advantage over others".

Industry people called for an urgent solution. "This issue of benzoate has to be resolved as soon as possible, because the producers are usually programmed well before planting and can not wait for what will or not happen."