WIDELY USED fungicide chlorothalonil is to be removed from EU growers' chemical armoury, raising particular concern about Scotland's barley crop, which has no other reliable defence against the disease ramularia.
Chlorothalonil (CTL) is the active ingredient in dozens of products approved across multiple crops including wheat, veg, beans and potatoes, but it is as 'Bravo' that most barley growers will be familiar with it. The substance has fallen foul of the European Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed, which has voted against renewing its market approval, following the European Chemicals Agency’s classification of CTL as a category 1 carcinogen, itself following on from the European Food Standards Agency making a similar recommendation.
SRUC crops expert Professor Fiona Burnett said that it was likely that the non-renewal regulation will propose a phase-out transitional period of 12 months maximum after its entry into force, expected during May 2019, with a sell-out period of six months til November 2019, leaving the sector to 'use up' by May 2020. 
"For Scotland the major worry is ramularia in barley where CTL is the only remaining fungicide with any efficacy and where there is no strong varietal resistance available to help growers out," said Professor Burnett. "There are also implication in terms of managing the risk of resistance in other crops such as wheat, although other multisite fungicides will have some efficacy there, albeit less than CTL. We had hoped there would be a reduction or restriction on use rather than a ban," she added.
NFUS combinable crops committee chairman, Ian Sands, who farms just under 2000 acres in Perthshire, said: “This is a massive set-back for the cereal growing sector with huge potential to affect the whole of the Scottish food and drink industry. Growers like myself will find it very hard to understand why a product that has been in use since 1964 is now deemed to be unsafe.
“Without doubt, this product is the mainstay of fungal disease control in Scotland’s largest and most important crop, barley, where it is the only effective tool available for the control of ramularia leaf spot. A bad infestation can cause a fall in yield of 0.6 tonnes per hectare, equivalent to more than 10% of crop lost," he said. “Ramularia also impairs quality and can increase screenings, hitting those who are growing for a quality market like malt whisky.
“CTL is also an important fungicide to protect other crops such as wheat – alternatives are nowhere near as effective," said Mr Sands. "With the number of plant protection products available to growers shrinking, the loss of CTL has the potential to make the viability of growing crops borderline and given the huge importance of barley and wheat to the Scottish drinks industry, this could cause serious problems for this iconic sector."
Scottish Conservative MP for Gordon, Colin Clark, added: “This change undermines Scotland’s most iconic crop, malting barley for whisky manufacturing. It is a result of the EU reacting to lobby groups, ignoring sound science and 50 years of safe use.”