Canada OKs Marrone Bio Innovations's biofungicide REGALIA Rx

Date:07-15-2016

Marrone Bio Innovations Inc. recently announced that Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency has approved REGALIA Rx Biofungicide for use on wheat and soybean in Canada.

The REGALIA product portfolio, with all formulations based on an extract of Giant Knotweed (Reynoutria sachalinensis), is a suite of highly effective, preventative biofungicides for use on both conventional and organic crops, Marrone said. Regalia products prevent and fight diseases by triggering treated plants to produce disease-fighting biochemicals (induced systemic resistance), while simultaneously increasing leaf chlorophyll content to enhance plant health, crop yield and crop quality. REGALIA Rx is not harmful to workers, food, beneficials and pollinators and can be sprayed right up to harvest to manage residues for export. REGALIA Rx also has the minimum restricted-entry interval for workers to enter the field after spraying, increasing operational flexibility.

The newly approved REGALIA Rx label is for suppression of Septoria leaf spot on wheat and aerial web blight (Rhizoctonia solani), Alternaria leaf spot, frog-eye leaf spot (Cercospora sojina) and white mold (Sclerotinia sclerotiorum) on soybeans.

In addition to being an effective plant disease management tool, multi-year North American field trials and demonstration trials on wheat and soy using as low as one pint per acre (metric equivalent approximately 1.2 L/hectare) of REGALIA Rx at top dress or flag leaf applications combined with growers’ regular plant health/fungicide programs increased wheat yields five bushels per acre (340 kilos per hectare), on average, when compared to the standard grower chemical fungicide-only program. In early trials in Europe, use of the REGALIA Rx formulation also increased protein content in wheat grain.

For soybeans, REGALIA Rx treatments as low as one pint per acre (metric equivalent of approximately 1.2 L/hectare) applied at R1-R4 plant growth stage applications averaged 2 bushels per acre (130 kilos per hectare) more than the standard chemical fungicide-only program without REGALIA Rx added.

MBI has an agreement with Koch Agronomic Services to distribute REGALIA Rx brands in the United States and Canada for large acre crops, such as wheat, soybeans, corn and alfalfa.

MBI markets a more concentrated formulation, REGALIA MAXX, in Canada for specialty crops through its distributor Engage Agro. REGALIA MAXX was previously approved by Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency for outdoor and greenhouse use on a variety of fruits and vegetables and ornamentals, wheat, highbush blueberries, apples and turf.