Written by Tom Allen-Stevens
A copper-based blight fungicide has been given emergency approval following lobbying of Defra minsters by the Soil Association to retain its use. Tom Allen-Stevens reports. The Chemicals Regulation Division (CRD) has approved the use of Funguran Progress to control late blight in organic potato crops. This follows advice by the Expert Committee on Pesticides (ECP) not to authorise the copper hydroxide product in line with recommendations from the CRD risk assessment due to environmental concerns, in particular aquatic toxicity. The approval was granted on 10 July under an emergency use application made by AHDB last year. Growers in England are able to use the fungicide until 30 September 2020 and have until 31 October 2020 to dispose of stocks. Marketed in the UK by Certis, Funguran Progress has an active ingredient of 537 g/kg copper hydroxide. “This is good news for organic potato growers this season,” says Certis UK Potato Product Manager, Nick Badger. “For the future, Certis Europe has recently submitted a new product submission (Article 33) to CRD for Funguran Progress and we await the outcome of its evaluation.” Following the ECP recommendation not to approve Funguran, The Soil Association moved swiftly to ensure its use was retained on…
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