The Midwest and northern plains of the United States are seeing an increase in crop-killing weeds like kochia. This is the latest evidence that weeds are becoming more resistant to pesticides, and businesses like Bayer and Corteva can produce new treatments to combat them.
In many cases, weeds are gaining resistance against numerous pesticides, scientists added.
In addition to reviewing eight academic papers published since 2021, two dozen farmers, scientists, weed specialists, and business executives testified. These papers detailed how weeds like giant ragweed, kochia, waterhemp, and others are squeezing outcrops in North Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota as chemicals become less effective.
AgbioInvestor, a UK-based company that studies the crop protection industry, claims that over the past 20 years, chemical companies have introduced fewer products and decreased the percentage of income allocated to research and development spending.
Farmers claim that their failing war against weeds is endangering their harvests of grains and oilseeds at a time when growers are facing climate change-related harsh weather and inflation.
“Ian Heap, director of the International Survey of Herbicide Resistant Weeds, a network of scientists in over 80 nations that maintains a global database, stated, “We’re in for significant issues over the next 10 years for sure.” “We are in for a real shake-up.”
The database shows that glyphosate, one of the most widely used herbicides, is less effective against 361 weed species, 180 of which are found in the United States, and damages crops like maize, soy, and sugar beetroots.
The most recent significant chemical used in the United States, dicamba, was shown to be resistant to about 21 weed species worldwide in 2017.
Environmental organizations contend that farmers ought to use organic weed-control techniques rather than toxic ones.
According to Take Action, a farmer resource program of the United Soybean Board, kochia can reduce yields by up to 70% if left unchecked. Kochia can spread up to 30,000 seeds per plant.
The creation of stronger seeds is one of the other reasons that have increased global crop yields overall. However, scientists predict that weed issues will get worse because some weeds exhibit pesticide resistance even after a single encounter.
“TERRIFIC”
To eradicate late-season weeds, farmer Bob Finken sprayed dicamba and glyphosate near Douglas, North Dakota. Kochia was not eradicated by any product.
Finken, 64, remarked, “That was scary.” “Each year seems to get a little worse.”
Finken was compelled to use harvesting equipment to remove the weeds, putting costly machinery in danger of clogging.
According to Sarah Lovas, an agronomist with the precision agriculture company GK Technology, some farmers are using laborers to pick weeds by hand.
In 2023, North Dakota ranked tenth in the nation for soybean production and produced the most spring wheat.
A year after it was first discovered in the state, dicamba-resistant Kochia has been confirmed in five of the state’s fifty-three counties, according to Joe Ikley, a weed specialist at North Dakota State University.
“It’s only a question of time until it reaches your farm,” stated 65-year-old Monte Peterson, a soybean farmer close to Valley City, North Dakota.
LAB SCALE-BACK
Longer development and regulatory processes, according to chemical makers Bayer, Corteva, and FMC, have limited the availability of new solutions to address weed resistance. Industry leaders claim that authorities are now stricter when it comes to the effects on the environment and public health.
Not much has changed since 1996, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), about the requirements for authorizing new herbicides. The EPA did note that some decisions have been postponed in light of recent efforts to evaluate the effects of novel active components on endangered plants and fauna.
The longer processing times were not estimated by the EPA. According to the FDA, evaluations of lower-risk products are expedited.
According to AgbioInvestor, farm chemical businesses allocated 6.2% of their sales revenue, a decrease from 8.9% in 2000, to the discovery of new active ingredients. According to their data, the number of new active compounds introduced decreased by more than half between 2000 and 2022.
Rather, businesses have increased the applications of already-available pesticides like 2,4-D, glufosinate, and dicamba.
Based on the first new mode of action (a word used to describe how a chemical kills a weed) in the industry in three decades, FMC expects to launch an herbicide in 2026 to eliminate grassy weeds in rice harvests.
Eleven years went into developing the pesticide. Within ten years, FMC expects to turn a profit of $400 million, a small portion of the about $8 billion worldwide glyphosate industry.
“If we don’t keep developing the new products, we are going to run into a wall where growers don’t have the tools to combat the pests,” Mark Douglas, the company’s CEO, said. “And then ultimately, you face food security issues.”
By 2028, Germany’s Bayer, the largest agricultural chemical and seed firm in the world, plans to launch its first novel mode of action herbicide in more than three decades.
“If we want to continue serving farmers, we need new modes of action,” stated Bob Reiter, chief of research and development at Bayer’s crop science business.
According to Reiter, firms used to commercialize a product for every 50,000 applicants, but nowadays, it takes 100,000–150,000 efforts.
According to US-based Corteva, to get regulatory clearance, it has integrated sustainability standards, like lower groundwater risk, into its research and development.
When a fungicide with a novel mode of action against the Asian soybean rust disease is introduced in Brazil in 2027, the company expects that this strategy will expedite the regulatory procedure, according to Vice President of Crop Protection Research and Development Ramnath Subramanian. He made no mention of how much quicker the procedure might be.
Farmers should stop planting crops genetically modified to withstand herbicides, according to Bill Freese, scientific director of the Center for Food Safety in Washington. This is because repeated herbicide spraying causes plants to develop resistance to various chemicals.
Freese described it as “like this toxic spiral.” “There’s no end in sight.”
