Governor backs curbs on herbicide

Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Wednesday approved the state Plant Board’s proposed tighter restrictions on dicamba, a herbicide that damaged thousands of acres of soybeans, cotton, fruits and vegetables when some farmers illegally sprayed it.

Hutchinson also said he supports higher fines for illegal use of dicamba, which for years has been restricted to post-harvest “burn down” operations on fields because of the chemical’s high volatility and tendency to drift.

Hutchinson also said the restrictions “will not unnecessarily burden businesses.” The board had “worked diligently” on the matter and had served the state’s agriculture community well, Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson’s endorsement of the restrictions is a blow to Monsanto Co. and a potential boon to BASF, a competitor.

Both companies have new dicamba-based herbicides — Xtendimax with VaporGrip by Monsanto and Engenia by BASF — for in-crop use on soybeans and cotton developed by Monsanto to be tolerant of the herbicide.

Monsanto marketed the new seeds before the federal Environmental Protection Agency had approved either of the companies’ new herbicides.

When some farmers with the dicamba-tolerant crops faced an onslaught of pigweed, which has grown resistant to most herbicides, they turned to the older, more volatile formulations of dicamba. Whether by drift or vaporization, the herbicide allegedly damaged the crops of neighbors who hadn’t planted the new Monsanto seeds in Arkansas and 10 other states last summer. A dispute over alleged dicamba damage to soybeans led to the Oct. 27 fatal shooting of a farmer in northeast Arkansas.

Both companies say their new herbicides are less volatile than older dicambas. However, only BASF made its new herbicide available for study by weed scientists with the University of Arkansas System Agriculture Division. Monsanto restricted its volatility tests of Xtendimax to crops in five states, and Arkansas was not one of them.

That lack of study by the UA scientists was a major debate point as the Plant Board and a committee met several times last summer. The board’s work included a 30-day public-comment period and a three-hour public hearing in November that attracted a crowd of about 120.