Doug Walsh, SLR

Doug Walsh is the IR-4 State Liaison Representative for Washington

Washington State University
IAREC in Prosser, WA
509-786-9287
dwalsh@wsu.edu

What is the IR-4 Project?

Since 1963, the IR-4 Project has been the primary entity in the United States to facilitate registrations of conventional pesticides and biopesticides on specialty food crops (fruits, vegetables, nuts, herbs, spices) and non-food environmental horticulture crops. IR-4 is sponsored by a grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

IR-4 Project Washington

Washington State University hosts the IR-4 Field Research Center located at the Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center (IAREC) in Prosser, Washington. The research center conducts residue trials as well as efficacy and crop safety trials to support new pesticide registrations.

Over the years, Washington stakeholders have requested nearly 1000 new food uses on specialty crops.  Over 500 of these have been registered and are available for farmers to use on a wide range of crops from apples, pears, cherries and other tree fruit, grapes, blueberries and many other berries, to asparagus, cruciferous vegetables, beans and peas, potatoes and onions, hops, clover, grasses and mint.  These are just part of the thousands of registrations IR-4 has secured for Washington growers and others in the west.  Many new registrations and uses have also resulted from IR-4 projects on environmental horticulture crops.

Examples of pesticide registration expansions resulting from recent Washington requests