FARMERS and chemical makers will have to think smarter about how to best use existing crop protection chemistry rather than rely on science to repeatedly produce magic bullets to beat resistance issues.
Crop chemistry will continue to evolve and deliver important gains for agriculture, but tweaking the way existing modes of action are deployed will be just as critical, says BASF's global crop protection registration senior vice-president Jurgen Oldeweme.
Farmers and their agronomists must also be smart about managing for chemical resistance on-farm, recognising weed, disease and insect problems were highly unlikely to be solved simply with one strategy.
Dr Oldeweme said the challenge was much more than the fast rising costs associated with developing fresh active ingredients.
Increasing constraints by regulatory authorities and intense public scrutiny of chemical use, particularly in Europe, made chemistry breakthroughs less likely to reach the market or much slower.