On April 2, Corteva Agriscience announced that it had received product registration for the first fungicide from the InatreqTM active family of products in the Republic of Ireland.

The company has described the QuestarTM fungicide with InatreqTM active as a unique target site to tackle septoria.

France approved the product in March, and the Republic of Ireland is the second European country to grant regulatory approval. The UK and other European countries are set to follow suit in the near future.

“Ultimately, this new solution will help control septoria, the biggest disease affecting wheat yields and of greatest concern to farmers,” Liz Glynn, national field technical manager for Corteva Agriscience in Ireland, stated.

“Resulting from the innovative work of Corteva Agriscience’s researchers, this new fungicide will meet the challenges of sustainable management and respond to our farmers’ desire for innovation to help them better protect their crops.”

According to the company, Questar is a new, naturally derived fungicide which offers curative and protectant control on all septoria strains. The new active can play an important role in long-term resistance strategies on farms.

Available for the 2021 season

The product will be available for the 2021 season and sales will start ahead of this. In 2021, a full programme of launch events and demonstration trials are due to take place and be available for farmers and agronomists to see this year.

“We are excited to demonstrate Questar’s proven quality for delivering robust control of septoria throughout the season,” Liz added.

The Inatreq active molecule (fenpicoxamid)

A statement from Corteva Agriscience stated that the fungicide “shows no cross-resistance to existing cereal fungicide chemistries”. The statement added that: “Farmers will benefit from its flexible application characteristics and consistent, broad-spectrum performance.”

More products coming

Susanne Wasson, president of Corteva Agriscience’s Crop Protection Business Platform, stated that: “Inatreq is the latest solution coming from our robust pipeline of innovative technologies.”

“We’re excited to continue building on our portfolio of natural products. Thanks to the natural origin of Inatreq, we are also meeting European consumer demands for more sustainably produced food.”

Control of disease in bananas

On another note, readers might be interested to know that the Inatreq active substance also protects bananas from a key disease – Black Sigatoka. Several countries have registered the product for use on bananas in South America.