Rio Grande do Sul producers receive guidance on the safe use of hormonal herbicides

Around 148 rural properties received visits from agricultural inspectors from the Department of Plant Protection of the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Sustainable Production and Irrigation of Rio Grande do Sul (Seapi-RS) in 2024. The objective is to guide producers and applicators of hormonal herbicides (2,4D) and inspect sprayers to see if they are within the rules.

Last week, inspectors visited properties in the municipality of Nova Santa Rita. According to the state agricultural inspector, Juliano Ritter, the work is extremely important, given the risk of improper application of hormones to sensitive crops. “We are taking this preventive action to guide producers on the use of hormonal pesticides, indicating the correct equipment and methods of application, checking field notebooks and providing guidance on their use,” he highlighted.

The municipalities defined in the action are those that have rules on hormonal herbicides (IN nº 13/2022) in force and those that have had a training course on the use of these herbicides. The course “Good Practices for the Application of Pesticides” must have a minimum workload of 16 hours, with practical and theoretical parts.

“This action also aims to verify whether the visited applicators are putting the course teachings into practice, whether the course was efficient, whether they would like to do a refresher course and how it would be (online, in-person or hybrid),” highlighted Rafael Friedrich, head of the Agricultural Inputs and Services Division (Disa), of the state Department of Agriculture. According to him, the feedback has been interesting and the applicators, in general, want to take the course again in its entirety, with theoretical and practical classes.