CHICAGO, Ill. (Reuters) — In a blow to Monsanto and BASF, Arkansas state lawmakers have voted to ban a controversial herbicide after mid-April to protect farmers from potential crop damage.
Arkansas will prohibit the use of herbicides based on a chemical known as dicamba from April 16 to Oct. 31, the strictest state limits imposed on the product after it was linked to millions of acres of U.S. crop damage last year.
The ban makes it less attractive for farmers to buy soybean and cotton varieties that Monsanto engineered to resist dicamba because the crops are designed to be sprayed with the chemical during the summer growing season.
Monsanto is banking on its dicamba-based herbicide and soybean seeds engineered to tolerate it, called Xtend, to dominate soybean production in the United States.
