THE IR-4 PROJECT OVER 50 YEARS OF SUSTAINED SUCCESS

摘要

Many food crops we consume, e.g. fruits, vegetables, nuts, herbs, and spices as well as non-food crops such as landscape plants and flowers are considered specialty crops. Specialty crops are grown on limited acreage and often have a high economic value; collectively estimated at $67 billion annually in 2007 (Clark). The pests that damage crops do not discriminate between major crops (corn, soybean, cotton, wheat/small grains, etc.) and specialty crops. Crop protection technology is often needed to prevent significant damage to crop quality and yield. The agrochemical industry often lacks the financial incentives to expand registration for their products to specialty crops. This is due to limited sales, high crop damage liability concerns and the significant expense to develop the data to support a registration of a crop protection product on a specialty crop. The same situation exists for minor uses on major crops. The lack of crop protection products for specialty crops and minor uses on major crops is referred to as the 'Minor Use Problem' and was the basis for the IR-4 Project being formed in 1963 as a means to solve this problem for US growers.