Crop Protection

Let's Talk About Flupyradifurone

Flupyradifurone, developed by Bayer Crop Science, represents a stride towards sustainable agriculture and is the perfect balance between the grower and the respect for the environment. In the last few decades, crop protection continued to further improve its environmental safety profile while yields have steadily increased. We at Bayer help growers produce better harvests with fewer resources. We heavily invest in new agricultural solutions and are committed to providing our customers around the world with tailored solutions integrating critical tools to plant, grow and protect their harvests.

 

Introduction to Flupyradifurone


Flupyradifurone is a modern insecticide for foliar, drench, drip and seed treatment application, with systemic properties, and an outstanding ecological and safety profile (please check your national registrations which concrete uses are allowed in your jurisdiction). It belongs to the novel chemical class of butenolides (IRAC sub-group 4D), chemically clearly different from other insecticides. Flupyradifurone has been developed to meet agricultural needs in many regions of the world, primarily for uses in a wide variety of fruit and vegetable crops as well as plantation (citrus, coffee, cocoa), tropical fruits and defined broad acre crops1.


Flupyradifurone-based products, such as Sivanto™ and Buteo™, are a perfect fit for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) due to their inherent physiological selectivity and environmental friendliness to honeybees and bumble bees and to most beneficial insects. They provide a wide range of significant benefits to growers, such as excellent speed of action, quick feeding cessation, efficient virus vector control and excellent application flexibility at any crop stage, even during flowering.

 

Flupyradifurone's Efficacy Against Pests


Sucking insect pests are known to seriously damage numerous agricultural crops worldwide and some of them are responsible for the transmission of plant viruses and bacteria. There is no other insecticide that combines such rapid and excellent control of major sucking pests like aphids, leafhoppers, psyllids, whiteflies, and other key insect pests including larval and adult stages.


Flupyradifurone is also considered a new tool for resistance management offering a much-needed rotation alternative to the current insecticides. Corresponding resistance management guidelines have been defined in order to assure the sustainable use of this new insecticide.


Finally, the targeted application of Flupyradifurone helps growers to minimize crop damage to ensure high marketability of fresh fruits and vegetables. This combination is unmatched worldwide.

 

1Please check your national registrations which concrete uses are allowed in your jurisdiction.

Benefits in a Box

Benefits in a box

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Learn about flupyradifurone and its uses.

Sivanto Infographic_16:9

Flupyradifurone plays an essential role in sustainable agriculture


We at Bayer help growers produce better harvests with fewer resources. We heavily invest in new agricultural solutions and are committed to providing our customers around the world with tailored solutions integrating critical tools to plant, grow and protect their harvests.


Weeds and pests can have a devastating impact on food production. Growers rely on a host of tools to fight these ever-present threats that account for up to 40 percent of the world's annual crop loss. Without the use of reliable crop protection solutions, those losses could be much higher – and threaten the stability of the world's food supply.


Over the past years, growers have lost several reliable plant protection products from their toolbox to protect their crops. Flupyradifurone adds a modern, flexible and reliable tool to the limited toolbox of fruit and vegetable growers who are mindful of the environment and the quality of their harvest, avoiding unnecessary losses of crops.


One of the most important features of Flupyradifurone is its inherent physiological selectivity and environmental friendliness to most beneficial insect groups, especially to honey bees and bumble bees. That’s why Flupyradifurone-based products fit very well into the principles of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs together with biological crop protection products and beneficials. Flupyradifurone also has limited potential for accumulation in soil, and none in water or air.


Furthermore, they stand out from other insecticides due to their flexibility in application and highly target-selectivity against a broad spectrum of sucking pest, such as aphids, hoppers and whiteflies which weaken the plant and spread diseases while protecting beneficial insects. Flupyradifurone-based foliar insecticides and seed treatment solutions are also successfully effective against mealybugs, leaf miners, soft scales, citrus psyllids, as well some weevils, thrips and beetles.


Belonging to the new chemical class of butenolides, Flupyradifurone also offers a much-needed rotation alternative to current insecticides which often suffer from resistance development.


As a leader in the agricultural industry, Bayer takes its role in the food chain very seriously and assumes its responsibility to ensure healthy, affordable and high-quality fruit and vegetables by limiting as much as possible crop waste. Flupyradifurone’s fast-acting ability minimizes crop damage and provides the grower the opportunity to harvest more quality fruits and vegetables fit for putting on the market. 

Explore how flupyradifurone meets high standards in terms of safety for both the environment as well as human health.

Honey Bee

Flupyradifurone has an excellent environmental and safety profile

 

At Bayer, our mission is to help farmers protect their crops while preserving the environment. Modern, innovative crop protection products allow more targeted use of pesticides, which is ultimately better for the planet. Flupyradifurone allows us to do just that. It was developed to meet high standards for targeted, environmentally safe products.

 

Flupyradifurone-based products meet the highest standards for environmental safety and have a favorable safety profile for many non-target organisms in soil, water and air at the recommended use rates. This includes soil-dwelling organisms such as earthworms, fresh and saltwater fish, amphibians, mollusks, aquatic plants, algae and birds. In fact, flupyradifurone degrades readily in both soil and water. Its low volatility also means that it will not be found in the atmosphere.

 

Flupyradifurone and pollinator safety

 

Flupyradifurone has no harmful effects on honeybees and bumblebees and can even be safely applied during full bloom on bee-attractive crops when used in accordance with the label instructions. There is no evidence of adverse effects on honeybees or honeybee colonies. The excellent safety profile stems from its novel chemical structure. Flupyradifurone is a selective active substance that is active on specific pest species. Selectivity is a special characteristic of a substance that helps ensure that its activity is carefully targeted.

 

We trust the science behind our products. The safety studies behind flupyradifurone can be accessed on our dedicated website, so you can see for yourself. We continue testing our product's impact on honeybees and bumblebees to ensure we have the latest scientific findings at hand.

Honey Bee

Discover the socio-economic benefits associated with Flupyradifurone


In the European Union, farmers have used flupyradifurone safely and successfully since 2018. Worldwide, flupyradifurone-based products like Sivanto™ and Buteo™ are registered and available across the world, including in North, Central and South America, Africa, the Middle East, and across the Asia Pacific region, including India, China, Australia, and New Zealand.


Flupyradifurone is considered as a broad-spectrum insecticide. It is able to alleviate crop losses and damages caused by sucking insects, especially to fruits, grapes, and vegetables.


Virus transmission can cause both yield and quality loss to many of these food crops. Flupyradifurone is particularly used on crops with difficult-to-control sucking pest infestation and against virus and bacteria transmission vectors endangering the perennity of the crop. In addition, many of these vectors are quarantine pests and controlling them is vital to facilitate EU import and export of fruits, grapes, and vegetables1.


From tropical crops imported to the EU as coffee, citrus fruits and cocoa to a wide range of crops exported from the EU, flupyradifurone benefits from a safe toxicological and ecotoxicological profile. To facilitate worldwide free trade in treated crops, Bayer registered its flupyradifurone-based insecticides for a great number of countries and crops. Close collaboration between major regulatory authorities around the world resulted in a rapid and widespread establishment of Maximum Residue Limits and Import Tolerances.

 
Innovative Mode of Action protects crops from environmental stresses


Flupyradifurone is taken up into the leaves and stems with spray application and via the roots when applied to soil or alternative substrates. After absorption into the plant, it is systemically translocated in the xylem and translaminarily distributed into the leaf lamina. In addition, its systemicity can reduce drought and other environmental stresses in mono- and dicotyledonous crops, protecting harvests, securing higher yields and improving plant health, both when applied foliar or on soil and seeds. This is of particular importance given the increasing rate of severe droughts resulting from climate change, creating huge pressure on our food systems.


All in all, using flupyradifurone in a responsible manner can contribute not only to more sustainability in modern agriculture but also to improved competitiveness of European farmers. Innovative tools like flupyradifurone could play an important role in the green transition making the European food system more sustainable and resilient.

1Please check applicable residue levels for global trade

Learn more about the EU re-approval process of flupyradifurone.

Lettuce Field

At Bayer, we are committed to living up our responsibility as a leader to shape the future of agriculture for the benefit of our customers, consumers and the planet. We firmly believe in the safety of our products, including flupyradifurone.

 

Like every other active ingredient in plant protection products, flupyradifurone is regularly re-evaluated in the EU. Risks to human and animal health, the environment and effectiveness are checked here.

 

In 2015, the European Commission granted a ten-year approval for the active ingredient flupyradifurone which is currently approved in the EU until December 9, 2025.

 

In addition, flupyradifurone-based products must be subjected to a safety evaluation by the national authorities of the EU member states and authorized in the individual countries. Only then can they be used in practice, for example in agriculture.

 

On December 7, 2022, Bayer submitted an application for the re-approval of flupyradifurone to the Rapporteurs Member States Greece (RMS) and Poland (co-RMS), the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), the European Commission and all other EU Member States. The application deadline was December 9, 2022, three years before the current flupyradifurone approval expires.

 

What happens next?

 

EFSA will conduct public consultations to gather feedbacks on the dossier and on the renewal assessment report drafted by Greece, as a Rapporteur Member State, and Poland, as a co-Rapporteur Member State.

 

EFSA is expected to publish its final conclusions in 2025.

 

In parallel, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) is expected to publish conclusions on the harmonized classification and labelling.

 

The European Commission will analyze EFSA's conclusions and the renewal assessment report to put forward a renewal report and a draft regulation to Member States on whether the approval of flupyradifurone can be renewed or not. The experts of the EU Member States then vote in the responsible committee. On the basis of the vote, the EU Commission will approve the active ingredient in the EU.

What is flupyradifurone Sivanto Bayer?


Flupyradifurone, commercially known as Sivanto, is an insecticide product developed by Bayer. It belongs to the novel chemical class of butenolides and is used for foliar, drench, drip and seed treatment applications. It boasts systemic properties and has a strong ecological and safety profile.


What is flupyradifurone used for?


Flupyradifurone is used primarily for protecting a wide variety of fruit and vegetable crops, plantation crops (like citrus, coffee, and cocoa), tropical fruits, and certain broad acre crops from various insect pests, particularly sucking pests. These include aphids, leafhoppers, psyllids, whiteflies, and other key insect pests in their larval and adult stages. Flupyradifurone is also a significant tool for managing resistance to current insecticides, offering a rotation alternative.


Is flupyradifurone harmful to bees?


No, flupyradifurone is not harmful to bees. It's noted for its inherent physiological selectivity and environmental friendliness towards most beneficial insect groups, specifically honeybees and bumblebees. Its application during full bloom on bee-attractive crops, when used according to label instructions, is considered safe with no evidence of adverse effects on honeybees or their colonies.  


Is flupyradifruone a neonicotinoid?


No, flupyradifurone is not a neonicotinoid. It belongs to a different chemical class known as butenolides (IRAC sub-group 4D). This classification is chemically distinct from other insecticides, including neonicotinoids.