Ka‘ū News Briefs, Thursday, May 20, 2021

Coffee Leaf Rust, which recently came to this island, can devastate farms. The EPA has given permission to use a fungicide to fight back. Photo from state Department of Agriculture

THE LONG AWAITED APPROVAL OF A FUNGICIDE TO manage and control Coffee Leaf Rust has come to Kaʻū Coffee farmers and their colleagues in other regions of Hawaiʻi. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved the emergency request from the Hawaiʻi Department of Agriculture to allow the use of Priaxor® Xemium, to fight CLR, the devastating plant pathogen, which has reached Kona but not yet Kaʻū Coffee farms, according to a recent round of testing. The fungicide is not currently labeled by the EPA for specific use on coffee plants, but it is allowed for use to control fungi on leafy vegetables, strawberries, tomatoes, soybeans, wheat and many other crops.
    In March 2021, the state Department of Agriculture filed a request for a specific exemption with the EPA to allow the use of the fungicide on coffee plants. Notification of approval of the emergency exemption came yesterday which allows the fungicide to be used for up to one year or until use on coffee 
plants is added to the product label by EPA and the product's producer.
    "Hawaiʻi coffee growers now have an added method to combat the coffee leaf rust which is extremely difficult to manage," said Phyllis Shimabukuro-Geiser, chair of the state Board of Agriculture. "Other efforts to minimize the damage and spread of coffee leaf rust include quarantines on the movement of coffee plants and associated material, the import of disease-resistant coffee plants and the development of integrated pest management strategies."

Coffee Leaf Rust defoliates and reduces production, and can lead to death of the coffee tree. Photo from state Department of Agriculture

  The EPA exemption allows coffee growers to use the fungicide under the following conditions:
Growers must inform the Pesticides Branch at least seven days prior to using the product by emailing sec18@hawaii.gov. Personal protective equipment must be worn as required by the label.
All directions on both the container label, as well as the dealer provided Section 18 label, must be followed. All use/application must be reported to HDOA's Pesticides Branch within 10 days of application.
   Growers with questions on the proper use of the fungicide may contact Pesticides Branch to reach Cal Westergard at (808) 974-4143.
    In anticipation of EPA's approval, the Dept. of Ag and University of Hawaiʻi's College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources held two webinars for coffee growers in April on the use of Priaxor® Xemium. Two additional webinars are being planned in June.
    CLR was first discovered in Sri Lanka in 1869 and can cause severe defoliation of coffee plants resulting in greatly reduced photosynthetic capacity. Depending on CLR prevalence in a given year, both vegetative and berry growth are greatly reduced. There are multiple long-term impacts of CLR, including dieback, resulting in an impact to the following year's crop, with estimated losses ranging from 30 percent to 80 percent.
   Since the first detection of CLR in Hawaiʻi in October 2020, a multi-agency effort involving HDOA, UH-CTAHR, the USDA Daniel K. Inouye Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center and the Hawaiʻi coffee industry has been working to protect Hawaiʻi's $56-million coffee industry.
    For more on CLR and the Hawaiʻi coffee industry, go to the Coffee Education Website - UH-CTAHR at https://www.hawaiicoffeeed.com/; HDOA Coffee Leaf Rust Advisory at https://hdoa.hawaii.gov/pi/files/2021/01/NPA-20-03-Coffee-leaf-rust1-21.pdf; CLR Field Guide at https://hdoa.hawaii.gov/pi/files/2020/12/CLR-Public-field-guide-with-form11-20.pdf, and 
2020-2021 Hawaiʻi Coffee Season Statistics (National Agricultural Agricultural Statistics Service: https://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Hawaii/Publications/Fruits_and_Nuts/Coffee-01-26-2021.pdf.