Active ingredient contents of ‘me-too’ registered abamectin products and differences in their efficacy onTetranychus cinnabarinus

摘要

Many agrochemical companies in Turkey purchase generic active ingredients (a.i.) and, by way of ‘me-too’ registration, sell pesticides under different brand names. Farmers and researchers often claim that these products are ineffective. In order to determine the a.i. content and efficacy of me-too registered abamectin-based products, we studied seven (in 2004) and ten (in 2005) products, which were chosen based on their availability and high market share. Differences in both efficacy and a.i. contents were observed in the products investigated in the study, but making speculative statements that could affect all me-too registered products based on our investigations of only 17 abamectin-based samples is not realistic. Timectin? was found to be statistically less effective onTetranychus cinnabarinus in both laboratory and greenhouse trials than all other tested products. Furthermore, Timectin was determined to have 69.8% less a.i. than in its product specifications. Our findings make it clear that grower complaints about the qualities of agricultural pesticides are based on actual chemical inadequacies of formulated pesticides. Analysis of the a.i. should be carried out as part of regular market inspection in order to determine whether agricultural pesticides comply with their product specifications. In this way growers will be provided with good quality but inexpensive products.