With the arrival of the sugarcane aphid, growers face loosing their entire crop to this new invasive pest.The first years it was in Kentucky, some growers did realize total losses of their crops. While sweet sorghum is grown on approximately 2,000 acres in the country, we are the leading state and it may generate as much as $10,000,000. Since 2016, working with the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, we have annually petitioned the EPA to allow our growers to use the insecticide Sivanto Prime under an emergency exemption (Section 18 use) to manage sugarcane aphid on sweet sorghum. While Sivanto Prime is labelled for sorghum, this does not include use on sweet sorghum while is considered an orphan crop by the EPA as it is not in any crop grouping due to its use pattern. Without this exemption, the entire industry would have collapsed in the state. Several other states in the southeast copied KY's submission package to sustain their industries.

Concurrent with the temporary Emergency Exemptions, I have taken the lead through the IR-4 project to identify this as a priority to develop a residue tolerance and permanent label fo Sivanto Prime for uyse against sugarcane aphid on sweet sorghum. The IR-4 project facilitates regulatory approval of crop protection tools on minor food crops. Through championing of this request, this project was ranked in the top 40 projects nationally across all commodities and research studies are underway in support of registration.