AUSTRALIA'S grains industry will have to be nimble to ensure the ongoing sustainability of its agricultural chemical sector.
Mark Congreve, senior consultant with the Independent Consultants Australian Network, said crop protection products were under threat on multiple fronts.
"We have got resistance that is limiting the effectiveness of some products and then we have the regulatory withdrawal and increased customer restrictions on others," he said at last week's Australian Summer Grains Conference on the Gold Coast.
He warned Australian farmers they only had to look abroad to see the winds of change with products being banned for use.
"A product like paraquat, which is still widely used in Australia is banned in many jurisdictions."
"You can't use paraquat in the EU, Brazil and many Asian countries.
"Even in the US they have recently changed the rules, they have not banned it altogether but they have brought in stricter rules, including fully enclosed handling systems with fully tamper proof systems to prevent operators coming in contact with the product at all."
"Now all applicators have to be fully accredited specifically to use paraquat."
Mr Congreve said he also felt insecticides could be in the firing line.
"Things like chlorpyrifos, we can see the entire organophosphate group of insecticides are struggling to get re-registered in places, the EU has banned the use of neo-nicotinoid products, so they are under a lot of pressure."
Mr Congreve said there were a number of Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority reviews under way at present.
He said he did not think Australia's most important herbicide, glyphosate, was in any danger of being banned due to safety concerns in the near future, but he did say use could be limited further.
"We're already seeing councils not using glyphosate due to increased public scrutiny."
In the agricultural space he said some of the less core uses, such as the desiccation of cereal crops, could come under scrutiny.
Mr Congreve said the grains industry needed to highlight its sustainability credentials and avoid errors such as spray drift.
"We've seen the very visual 2,4-D drift damage in cotton but there is also plenty of glyphosate drift that is just less striking.
"As an industry, if we want to retain access to products we must stop the spray drift problem, there is way too much and it does not need to happen."
He said more spray capacity, lowering the need for individual operators to push the boundaries in order to get over the country in time, combined with more widespread adoption of wider droplets could help the problem.
It was not just the regulatory side of things causing concern.
Mr Congreve said resistance was happening faster and farmers could not look to a magic pipeline of new active ingredients.
"The endless stream of cheap new molecules is over, we're not going to get massive number of new chemistries coming along."
However, he said growers would be able to manage through sound chemical rotations and utilising appropriate non-chemical controls.
"We will see more double knocks, even though it can be more expensive, just to keep the chemistry effective longer, and there will be more work on things on harvest weed seed control and stopping weed seed set."
"In terms of applications, things like shielded sprayers and green-seeker technology will help ensure more chemical gets to the target and help keep resistance at bay."
He said while there was plenty of research in the herbicide space the high costs of registration meant it was limited to the major players.
Instead he said farmers may find new uses for existing chemistry to help fill the gap.
"Products such as Reflex, Callisto and Luximax, the chemistry is all 25 years old, but new here in Australia."