News

Planting confusion for Ark. farmers over dicamba

The Arkansas Department of Agriculture says it will not enforce its statewide ban on dicamba until there is “more certainty from the court system in interpreting recent decisions.” Instead, the state says it will enforce the federal label for pesticide applications.

The state ban is for the entire growing season, April 14th through October. Arkansas growers are now unsure about what soybeans to plant. Six farmers who thought they could spray because of a judge’s ruling in March, along with at least 100 other farmers who filed similar lawsuits following that decision, are in the spotlight.

A state judge in the case of the six farmers lifted the state ban for them. Since then, two more judges in Arkansas (in Mississippi and Phillips counties) issued temporary injunctions to allow the other farmers to spray dicamba. The state attorney general has appealed those decisions to the Arkansas Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the Arkansas Ag Department reminds farmers that while they can now spray under federal requirements, there are civil penalties of up to $25,000-dollars, under state law, for dicamba applications that result in significant off-target damage. Hundreds of dicamba damage complaints were filed in Arkansas last year.