On June 28, 2020, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) published draft regulations for the proposed pollinator protection mitigation measure for the use of neonicotinoids in agricultural crops. The draft proposal for citrus would prohibit the use of neonicotinoids for indeterminate blooming citrus crops, restricts timing of applications to between petal fall and January 31 (for clothianidin the cutoff date is December 15th), and reduced the maximum application rates by 60-90 percent.
DPR will be holding webinars on August 11th and 12th share information and gather feedback from the public. Click the link to find out more information about the webinars and download the draft text of the proposed mitigation. We strongly encourage citrus growers and PCA’s to participate in the webinars to talk about the industry’s practices and the vital role neonicotinoids play in California citrus.
CCM has and will continue to engage DPR leadership and staff throughout the rulemaking process. CCM has hired scientific consulting firm to review DPR’s risk analysis and we believe the draft mitigations go well beyond what is necessary to reduce the risk to honeybees. We strongly believe that the industry’s current best practices provide protections at a level sufficient to for this regulatory action.
If you have any questions, please contact Lori Apodaca, Director of Trade and Marketing at lori@cacitrusmutual.com or 559-592-3790.
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