A federal judge this week vacated the 2020 dicamba registrations by the Environmental Protection Agency. The ruling in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona leaves farmers without options to use the herbicide in the upcoming growing season. Affected products include Bayer’s XtendiMax, BASF’s Engenia and Syngenta’s Tavium.
In response, the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service said, “Many will panic in response to this news and scramble to switch technology.”
The court vacated registrations for over-the-top use of dicamba, ruling that the EPA violated the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act’s public input requirement before its approval.
Proponents called the ruling a “vital victory for farmers and the environment.” The Center for Biological Diversity claims, “Endangered butterflies and bee populations will keep tanking if the EPA keeps twisting itself into a pretzel to approve this product just to appease the pesticide industry.”
Crop protection companies are assessing the situation to find a path forward for dicamba.