Pesticide labels to include mode of action info from 2023
© Tim Scrivener Selecting pesticides with different modes of action is to become easier, with labels required to carry this information from 2023.
The clearer labelling is aimed at helping farmers and agronomists tackle the threat of resistance, which the three UK Resistance Action Groups say is “the greatest threat to product efficacy”.
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They point out that resistance risk is increasing because of a combination of few new active substances and even fewer modes of action, and the increasing loss of existing products.
At the heart of anti-resistance strategies is the need to prevent the repeated treatment of survivors with the same mode of action. Farmers are instead encouraged to rotate between different modes.
That is why the chemicals regulation division of the Health and Safety Executive has announced changes designed to give greater prominence to the mode of action.
This means all product labels will be required to carry mode of action icons and groups from January 2023.
Labels will specify the code or group assigned to each active by the relevant classification scheme (see panel).
The rule will apply to professional products where there is an established classification for modes of action.
That means products such as slug pellets and nematicides, where there are no well-defined classification schemes in place, will not be included.
The three main classification schemes
- Fungicide Resistance Action Committee The classification scheme uses a number (sometimes a letter/number combination) to distinguish fungicide groups according to their biochemical mode of action in the biosynthetic pathways of plant pathogens.
- Insecticide Resistance Action Committee The scheme classifies insecticides and acaricides into two types of groups: numbered groups whose members are known or thought to act at specific target sites, and UN groups of undefined or unknown mode of action.
- Herbicide Resistance Action Committee Herbicides are classified into groups according to their target sites, mode of action, similarity of induced symptoms, or chemical classes.
