Herbicide products containing trifluralin are likely to be banned within the next two years, manufacturers have confirmed.

This follows a European Commission decision not to grant Annex I approval for the product under its ongoing review of approved pesticides and comes just days after the Pesticides Safety Directorate announced IPU (isoproturon) would be outlawed by 30 June 2009.

The reason for the non-inclusion of trifluralin on Annex I was due to the significant data gap highlighted in the “chronic risk to fish” study, said Makhteshim Agan’s Stuart Hill. “The RMS is willing to review any new data submitted and re-submission can occur at the earliest possible moment in the process.”

A maximum 18-month phased withdrawal period is likely, although if new data can be submitted which fulfils the data requirements/ issues highlighted by the Commission, Annex I inclusion could be reached with no loss of trifluralin to the market.

“The removal of trifluralin, hard on the heels of the decision to revoke all uses of IPU in the UK, creates a major challenge for effective grassweed control on UK farms,” said Dow AgroScience's James Knight.

“Independent data has shown that trifluralin is the only product tested that gave control of resistant forms of blackgrass. No wonder almost 750,000ha of UK crops were treated with trifluralin in some form last year.”

Dow believed the regulatory requirements for Annex I inclusion had been met and said it would be submitting new data and looking at the legal opportunities in an effort to achieve Annex I inclusion in the future.

Are you worried about what impact losing IPU and trifluralin will have on your herbicide strategy? Or, are there enough alternatives out there for its loss to go unnoticed? Either way, discuss it in the FWi Forum.

Look out for more on what the implications of the ban could mean for growers in Friday's Farmers Weekly (23 March) and Crops (24 March).