FIFRA Section 18 Specific Emergency Exemption: Use of Clethodim in Rice to Control Weedy Red Rice

This specific exemption request is necessary to reduce losses by the California rice industry due to a continued infestation of weedy red rice in cultivated rice fields. Multiple factors are contributing to the emergency situation, including the absence of commercially viable control methods and the pest’s taxonomic similarity to the main crop, which hinders effective segregation and eradication of weedy red rice. Currently, there are no effective herbicides available that allow spot treatments to safely kill weedy rice. The accepted cultural practices available to growers such as fallowing and roguing are also cost prohibitive, making them unsuitable for growers to rely upon long term without incurring further economic hardship.