Chemical Management
The correct use and disposal of chemicals is vital to the sustainability of the mango industry.
This section of the best practice resources covers:
- Chemical Stewardship
- Disposing of chemicals and containers
- Resistance Management – Overview
- Resistance Management – Insecticides
- Resistance Management – Fungicides
- Resistance Management – Herbicides
- Resistance Management Strategies
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Chemical Stewardship
Everyone who imports, designs, produces, sells, uses and disposes of chemical products has a shared responsibility to reduce the environmental and human health and safety impacts of those products.
Product stewardship schemes support the environmentally sound management of products and materials over their life. This also includes at the end of their useful life through correct disposal. These arrangements may be voluntary, mandatory or shared with industry.
Examples of good product stewardship are when:
- people recycle products, and their packaging
- companies design their products for easier recycling
- companies use more recycled materials and less resources to manufacture their products
- companies limit the hazardous materials their products contain.
For more information visit the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, here.
CropLife Australia represents the innovators, developers, manufacturers, formulators and registrants of crop protection and ag-biotechnology products. They believe in a rigorous, robust and science-based regulatory system to protect users, consumers and the environment.
- The regulatory system must be effective and efficient and commensurate with risk.
- Regulation must be effective to ensure that product use in accordance with label instructions will not have unanticipated, adverse effects.
- Regulation must also be efficient to ensure that it imposes the lowest possible cost to encourage investment and innovation by registrants to develop and register new products, uses and technologies for farmers.
- Inefficient regulation can prevent farmers from having timely access to new crops, new pesticides or new uses for existing pesticides.
Disposing of chemicals and containers
Disposing of empty agvet chemical containers in the correct way is crucial to the reputation and sustainability of the agricultural industry in Australia.
State Governments supply information about waste and chemical disposal. For more information, click on your state:
There are two nation-wide programs in Australia to help farmers and other users of agricultural and veterinary (agvet) chemicals to dispose of unwanted chemicals and empty containers.
Both programs are operated by Agsafe on behalf of AgStewardship Australia, a consortium of chemical manufacturers and primary producer organisations.
ChemClear is Australia’s only Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) program operating for agvet chemicals and is an initiative of the Industry Waste Reduction Scheme (IWRS).
drumMUSTER provides Australian agricultural and veterinary chemical users with a recycling pathway for eligible empty AgVet chemical containers. They provide a full cradle to grave waste cycle for agvet chemical containers, enabling the re-use of the recycled plastic and steel.
Resistance Management – Overview
Pests, weeds and diseases continue to be major threats to the productivity, profitability and sustainability of Australia’s farming sector. To ensure the longevity and viability of agricultural chemical products, appropriate strategies to minimise resistance must be implemented.
Resistance may be defined as ‘a heritable change in the sensitivity of a pest population that is reflected in the repeated failure of a product to achieve the expected level of control when used according to the label recommendation for that pest species’.
Having an integrated pest management system and an effective resistance management strategy for chemical crop protection products is crucial to the long-term viability and profitability of Australian farming.
Insecticide Resistance Action Committee (IRAC)
Resistance Management – Insecticides
What are insecticides?
Insecticides are valuable tools used by farmers that can contribute to efficient food production because they control insects and arthropods that reduce a crop’s yield and quality.
While insecticides are among the most efficient tools for controlling pest populations, all farmers are challenged by the fact that every insect control method has a limited life span because pests naturally evolve and become resistant.
How does insecticide resistance evolve?
The more frequently farmers use a certain type of insecticide, the more likely resistance will occur. Certain factors, such as using the insecticide in an enclosed area (e.g. greenhouse), can also increase the risk of resistance.
Effective resistance management strategies use alternations or sequences of difference modes of action:
The objective of Insecticide Resistance Management (IRM) is to prevent or delay resistance developing to insecticides, or to help regain susceptibility in insect pest populations in which resistance has already arisen. IRM is important in maintaining the efficacy of valuable insecticides. It is usually easier to prevent resistance occurring than it is to reactively regain susceptibility.
Insecticide applications are often arranged into Modes of Action (MoA) spray windows or blocks that are defined by the stage of crop development and the biology of the pest(s) of concern. Local expert advice should always be followed with regard to spray windows and timings. Several sprays of a compound may be possible within each spray window but it is generally essential to ensure that successive generations of the pest are not treated with compounds from the same MoA group. Modes of Action or activity group are included in our chemical posters to assist with developing effective resistance management strategies.
Resistance Management – Fungicides
What are fungicides?
Fungicides are chemicals that can inhibit the growth or development of fungal pathogens. They are important tools that farmers use proactively to protect and maintain plant health, quality and yield.
How does fungicide resistance evolve?
It is an evolutionary process that builds up through the survival and spread of resistant fungi after repeated use of the same fungicide treatment.
What can be done to prevent or delay resistance?
The most common approach to managing fungicide resistance is through responsible use of fungicides. In their most basic form, resistance management strategies advocate rotation of fungicide products with a different chemical activity group to prevent over-use of any one product or activity group. More complex strategies safeguard against the development of cross-resistance or resistance to multiple chemical groups. In Australia, all fungicide products are labelled to identify which activity group they belong to. The activity group is indicated by a number (or letter/number combination) code on the product label. Activity groups are included in our chemical posters to assist with developing effective resistance management strategies.
Selecting the most effective or appropriate way to apply fungicides will make them work better and assist in delaying the development of resistance. A good understanding of the pathogen’s life cycle and epidemiology will also help in the selection of the most appropriate application method. As a general rule, targeted applications to control a certain development stage or population level are most effective. Particular attention should be given to label recommendations, rates and coverage. Adherence to suggested disease threshold levels is also good resistance management practice.
Resistance Management – Herbicides
What are herbicides?
Herbicides are essential tools used by farmers to protect crop yields and quality by controlling weeds that compete with plants for nutrients, sunlight, space and water.
If farmers rely too heavily on one type of herbicide, however, weeds can naturally adapt and become resistant. In fact, roughly 250 weed species have evolved to resist 160 different herbicides over the past 60 years.
How does herbicide resistance evolve?
Resistance is a natural, biological response that is heightened by overusing the same weed control methods instead of integrating chemical, agronomic and non-chemical tools.
Resistance Management Strategies
Avocado and Mango - Anthracnose factsheet from CropLife is available to download below.