Paraquat exits the stage: how can pelargonic acid herbicide be used effectively? Farmers and experts share from the field

With the ban on paraquat imminent, the Council of Agriculture began promoting pelargonic acid herbicide from the start of this year, and recently widely distributed discount coupons, making a bottle cost only 20 yuan, stressing that it is suitable for use in vegetable production areas. But farmers' assessments of pelargonic acid are mixed, and many questions have arisen: why can't the weeds be killed? How exactly should it be used to be most effective? Will pelargonic acid acidify the soil? Will it harm the human body? If there is no subsidy in the future, is there any chance the price will come down?

Cutting ties with paraquat, come and get to know pelargonic acid herbicide! How exactly should it be used to be effective? Farmers and experts share practical field experience

A farmer surnamed Ko in the Chiayi area reported: some weeds just can't be killed, and large plants won't die either, and pelargonic acid has a low dilution ratio, so half a bottle is used up at one go, and in terms of both effect and price it falls short of the paraquat farmers used to favor. On top of that, the sour smell is strong, making farmers' noses uncomfortable when spraying, and it is very irritating if it gets on the skin.

But some people think pelargonic acid is quite easy to use. Qiu Fuyu, a farmer in Xuejia, Tainan, said, "As long as you use it in the right place, this stuff works." His experience is that spraying when the weeds are still at the seedling stage works very well, and it is best to spray when they have just put out two or three leaves, not to wait until the grass has grown strong before spraying. As for the irritancy of pelargonic acid, after using several brands he found that each brand's formulation is different, and some brands have less sour smell and lower irritancy, which he can accept.

In response to the pile of questions, NewsMarket conducted a special interview with Hsieh Feng-chia, head of the Biological Pesticide Division at the Taiwan Agricultural Chemicals and Toxic Substances Research Institute of the Council of Agriculture, and also gathered opinions from local farmers, farmers' associations and agricultural supply stores, as well as from weed expert Huang Wen-ta, associate professor in the Department of Agronomy at National Taiwan University, to spark discussion and seek improvement. In the QA section of the article, Q is NewsMarket asking on behalf of farmers, and A is Hsieh Feng-chia's reply.