Departments of agriculture in states with rice producers affected by bird consumption of rice seed need to begin applying for Section 18 Emergency Exemption Requests for AV-1011 (anthraquinone) bird repellent as soon as possible in order to have approvals from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in a timely fashion.
Section 18 of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) authorizes EPA to allow an unregistered use of a pesticide for a limited time if EPA determines that an emergency condition exists.
The EPA will have extensive data requests on bird damage from previous years and commercial handlers will need time to treat seeds with AV-1011 before they are delivered to farms.
USA Rice is working closely with all parties, including EPA, to facilitate the use of AV-1011 by rice growers.
