Articles
SUCCESSFUL ABSCISSION AGENT DEVELOPMENT AND COMMERCIALIZATION IN FLORIDA ORANGES
Article number
965_9
Pages
91 – 96
Language
English
Abstract
Achieving widespread adoption and full realization of mechanical harvesting benefits requires an abscission agent harvesting aid that will selectively loosen mature fruit.
The abscission agent must be highly selective to facilitate harvesting late season Valencia without significant yield losses to next years crop (young green fruit) which is on the tree at the same time as the current years crop.
Field testing by the University of Floridas Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) has demonstrated that mature fruit removal can be improved by 10-15% or more when 5-chloro-3-methyl-4-nitro-1H-pyrazole (CMNP) is used as an abscission agent.
By reducing fruit detachment force, CMNP allows mechanical harvesting at reduced intensity, thus minimizing tree injury and allowing removal of late season Valencia oranges without impacting the new crop.
In addition to demonstrations of efficacy and crop selectivity, however, numerous hurdles must be crossed prior to approval by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and subsequent commercialization.
These include successful completion of all EPA mandated studies for a food use product with favorable results supporting acceptable dietary and exposure risk assessments.
A complete Section 3 package for CMNP containing over 140 unique scientific studies is currently under review by EPA. Finally, a commercially viable manufacturing process for CMNP and scaled up process must be demonstrated to produce the product at an acceptable cost to end users a cost which also must allow acceptable return on investment to the manufacturer and the end user.
Product volumes are critical to achieve pricing to deliver the best possible return on investment.
Successfully meeting all of these requirements is extremely challenging, and experience within the crop protection industry shows the vast majority of active ingredient candidates do not achieve registration.
AgroSource looks forward to successfully registering and supplying the Florida citrus industry with a compelling value proposition for CMNP as a harvest aid.
The abscission agent must be highly selective to facilitate harvesting late season Valencia without significant yield losses to next years crop (young green fruit) which is on the tree at the same time as the current years crop.
Field testing by the University of Floridas Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) has demonstrated that mature fruit removal can be improved by 10-15% or more when 5-chloro-3-methyl-4-nitro-1H-pyrazole (CMNP) is used as an abscission agent.
By reducing fruit detachment force, CMNP allows mechanical harvesting at reduced intensity, thus minimizing tree injury and allowing removal of late season Valencia oranges without impacting the new crop.
In addition to demonstrations of efficacy and crop selectivity, however, numerous hurdles must be crossed prior to approval by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and subsequent commercialization.
These include successful completion of all EPA mandated studies for a food use product with favorable results supporting acceptable dietary and exposure risk assessments.
A complete Section 3 package for CMNP containing over 140 unique scientific studies is currently under review by EPA. Finally, a commercially viable manufacturing process for CMNP and scaled up process must be demonstrated to produce the product at an acceptable cost to end users a cost which also must allow acceptable return on investment to the manufacturer and the end user.
Product volumes are critical to achieve pricing to deliver the best possible return on investment.
Successfully meeting all of these requirements is extremely challenging, and experience within the crop protection industry shows the vast majority of active ingredient candidates do not achieve registration.
AgroSource looks forward to successfully registering and supplying the Florida citrus industry with a compelling value proposition for CMNP as a harvest aid.
Publication
Authors
M.C. Trimmer
Keywords
CMNP, citrus, mechanical harvesting, ‘Valencia’, harvest aid
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