By the agricultural season of 2023, a large domestic manufacturer of chemical plant protection products (HSPP) JSC Firm "August" has increased the range of products for weed control in buckwheat crops: herbicides against grass weeds "Miura" and "Graminion" received an extension of registration for use on this crop . Farmers positively assessed the new opportunities for crop conservation, an important crop for Russian food security.
The company "August" is increasing the number of drugs offered to protect buckwheat. Until 2023, the company's product range for use on this crop included Simba herbicides (C-metolachlor, 960 g/l), intended for pre-emergence treatment, and Quickstep (kletodim, 130 g/l and haloxyfop-R-methyl , 80 g/l) for working with seed crops. Since 2023, post-emergence systemic graminicides "Augusta" "Miura" (quizalofop-P-ethyl, 125 g/l), as well as the fast-acting "Graminion" (cletodym, 150 g/l) have been allowed to be used on buckwheat. - preparations for the fight against almost all cereal weeds.
“This season, we have already seen a high demand among our farmers for drugs registered for use on buckwheat. This is due to both objective demand and the implementation in the country of the traceability system for pesticides and agrochemicals of FSIS Saturn. The new level of control implies an absolute need to use only those CPPPs on specific crops that are officially approved for use on them and have the appropriate registration. As a result, they are provided with stable demand, - says Sergey Kapustin, head of the representative office of "August" in Barnaul. – Improving the assortment is not only import substitution, but also a way to effectively solve the pressing issues facing field growers. For the future, there are tasks to protect buckwheat, in particular, from fungal diseases, since the culture's susceptibility to them is growing. And also to control pests, such as meadow moth and cotton bollworm, which initially did not cause damage to buckwheat crops, but over time began to spread to it.”
The largest part of Russian buckwheat is grown in two regions: Altai and Bashkiria. As Sergei Kapustin notes, this year the weather conditions for the crop are still very similar to last year: the summer is generally hot, and there was no rain until mid-June. According to the Russian Ministry of Agriculture, in 2022, the average buckwheat yield in the country amounted to 11,3 centners per hectare, which is estimated as a fairly high figure. At the same time, it is too early to predict the results of 2023: buckwheat, being a “short day” crop originally from China, constantly forms new and new inflorescences from late June to early September. This means that even if the conditions for development throughout the summer left much to be desired in terms of air temperature, precipitation, the presence of pollinators or other factors, then with favorable warm weather in late August - early September, buckwheat in just 2-3 weeks can manage to form up to 90% of their crop.
This feature, as well as relative resistance to high temperatures and moisture deficiency, make buckwheat able to “insure” farmers if, due to drought or for other reasons, they did not have time to sow the crops that were originally planned in the crop rotation: they are replaced by buckwheat . This approach is periodically used on the own fields of August: for example, in the Republic of Tatarstan, the August-Tyulyachi agricultural firm planted 2023 hectares of buckwheat in 100. According to experts, the climate of Tatarstan is also quite suitable for the cultivation of this crop.