about the illegal use of fipronil with molasses
and ensure that the registered pesticide
mixtures with fipronil and lambda-cyhalothrin
shall only be used without an attractant bait.
The wine farmers of the Constantia Valley have
already made great strides with integrated
pest management. Distributors of plant
protection products and wine farmers are
incorporating biological pest management into
vineyard pest management with great success.
For example, the huge challenges posed by
mealybug is already something of the past
for most of the valley’s wine producers due
to the successful deployment of biological
control. Ants do however, upset these efforts
by fighting off biological organisms that are
used for the control of mealybug, hence an
ant control mechanism is required. All parties
agreed that the two registered fipronil plus
lambda-cyhalothrin pesticides can be used
effectively for this purpose. The insecticides
are applied to the base of the vine trunk
and keeps ants off the main parts of the
vine. Ants play a very important role in the
AgriKultuur |AgriCulture
agricultural ecology and therefore none of
the stakeholders want a situation where ant
nests are destroyed, but rather strive for a
mechanism where ants are kept away from
the productive parts of vines.
This model of collaboration among multiple
stakeholders needs to be perfected in the
Constantia Valley and then rolled out to other
parts of South Africa where bees are also at
risk of unnecessary pesticide impacts. CropLife
South Africa undertook to steer the process
with the assistance of the beekeepers, the
wine farmers, the research institutes and the
Department of Agriculture, which form part of
the CropLife South Africa’s Pollinator Forum
objectives. In addition, a Pollinator Charter
was developed between CropLife South Africa,
SABIO and organised agriculture, including
AgriSA, Hortgro, GrainSA, SANSOR, Subtrop
and the CRI, to highlight the responsibilities of
all parties to ensure bee health.
The plant science industry has made a
commitment to implement appropriate
measures to ensure the survival and
proliferation of pollinators. Working with
beekeepers and farmers is paramount to the
successful achievement of this commitment.
CropLife South Africa is also conducting a
review of labels of insecticides that may
pose a risk to bees in order to ensure
that appropriate bee safety measures are
incorporated on to all product labels.
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