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Newly Registered Pesticide May Help West Valley Cotton Farmers

Cotton farmers battling pests in their soil have a new option to fight back for their crops.

Nematodes are little creatures that can do heavy damage to cotton and vegetable roots, resulting in a lost profit for the farmer.

Now, California and Arizona growers can use a pesticide called Velum One.

University of Arizona pesticide expert Randy Norton has done tests here and said farmers in the West Valley will see the most benefit because nematodes thrive in the area’s sandy soil.

He says Velum One could end up being cheaper and less harmful than the typical fumigant chemical applied to crops.

“There are growers that actually would rather take the hit from the nematodes than use that control technique," he said. "So this new product is going to give more growers an opportunity to attempt to control these nematodes than what have traditionally done in the past.”     

Norton said the pesticide is not restricted-use and has been tested for at least eight years, with three in Arizona.

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Casey Kuhn was a senior field correspondent at KJZZ from 2015 to 2019.