The second annual report on Oregon pesticide use is likely to be the last. Just as the report from the Department of Agriculture went to press, the program was cut as a casualty of state budget problems.
The state of Oregon absorbed 19 million pounds of pesticides in 2008, according to the report. The soil fumigant commonly used on potato fields to kill nematodes and a common herbicide that kills weeds are the two most commonly used pesticides in Oregon.
Oregon's reported pesticide use dropped by half from the 2007 report, mostly due to a decline in the use of metam-sodium, a soil fumigant used in potato production, said Aimee Code, water quality coordinator for the National Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, a Eugene conservation group.
Some potato farmers are finding that alternating potatoes with mustard greens works as well as the fumigant, she said. (ARS research on crop rotation with mustard)
