Agriculture Production: USDA's Preparation for Asian Soybean Rust
(17-MAY-05, GAO-05-668R).					 
                                                                 
In November 2004, Asian Soybean Rust (ASR) was discovered in the 
United States in Louisiana. In the following weeks, it was found 
in eight additional southern states. ASR is a harmful fungal	 
disease that has spread throughout many other parts of the world,
including Asia, Australia, Africa, and South America. ASR can	 
infect over 90 host plant species, including legumes, such as dry
beans, peas, and kudzu, a plant that grows wild primarily in the 
southern United States. Although the disease has caused 	 
significant soybean crop loss and increased production costs in  
many other countries, ASR arrived in the United States too late  
in the crop year to have any effect on soybean production in	 
2004, and scientists were uncertain about how it would survive	 
the winter climates in the United States. However, in February	 
2005, researchers found that ASR had successfully over-wintered  
on kudzu in Florida, and it was subsequently detected in Georgia 
on soybean plants in April 2005. Since environmental factors,	 
such as rainfall, humidity, and temperature, affect both the	 
severity and incidence of ASR, scientists do not know how	 
widespread or damaging the disease will be in the United States  
during the 2005 crop year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture	 
(USDA) is responsible for monitoring and addressing the problems 
posed by ASR. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is	 
responsible for licensing fungicides to treat the disease.	 
Congress asked us to determine (1) USDA's efforts to develop and 
implement an ASR surveillance strategy to identify and protect	 
against ASR's entry into the United States and to test and verify
suspect cases; (2) USDA's strategy for minimizing the effects of 
ASR now that the fungus has arrived in the United States; and (3)
the progress that USDA, EPA, and others have made in developing, 
testing, and licensing fungicides to treat ASR and in identifying
and breeding ASR-resistant or -tolerant soybeans.		 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-05-668R					        
    ACCNO:   A24317						        
  TITLE:     Agriculture Production: USDA's Preparation for Asian     
Soybean Rust							 
     DATE:   05/17/2005 
  SUBJECT:   Agricultural chemicals				 
	     Agricultural industry				 
	     Agricultural policies				 
	     Disease detection or diagnosis			 
	     Environmental monitoring				 
	     Environmental policies				 
	     Interagency relations				 
	     Pesticides 					 
	     Plant diseases					 
	     Plants (organisms) 				 
	     Strategic planning 				 
	     Farm produce					 
	     Environmental education				 
	     Environmental protection				 

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GAO-05-668R

United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548

May 17, 2005

The Honorable Tom Harkin
Ranking Democratic Member
Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
United States Senate

Subject: Agriculture Production: USDA's Preparation for Asian Soybean Rust

Dear Senator Harkin:

In November 2004, Asian Soybean Rust (ASR) was discovered in the United
States in Louisiana. In the following weeks, it was found in eight
additional southern states. ASR is a harmful fungal disease that has
spread throughout many other parts of the world, including Asia,
Australia, Africa, and South America. ASR can infect over 90 host plant
species, including legumes, such as dry beans, peas, and kudzu, a plant
that grows wild primarily in the southern United States. Although the
disease has caused significant soybean crop loss and increased production
costs in many other countries, ASR arrived in the United States too late
in the crop year to have any effect on soybean production in 2004, and
scientists were uncertain about how it would survive the winter climates
in the United States. However, in February 2005, researchers found that
ASR had successfully overwintered on kudzu in Florida, and it was
subsequently detected in Georgia on soybean plants in April 2005. Since
environmental factors, such as rainfall, humidity, and temperature, affect
both the severity and incidence of ASR, scientists do not know how
widespread or damaging the disease will be in the United States during the
2005 crop year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is responsible
for monitoring and addressing the problems posed by ASR. The Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for licensing fungicides to treat
the disease.

You asked us to determine (1) USDA's efforts to develop and implement an
ASR surveillance strategy to identify and protect against ASR's entry into
the United States and to test and verify suspect cases; (2) USDA's
strategy for minimizing the effects of ASR now that the fungus has arrived
in the United States; and (3) the progress that USDA, EPA, and others have
made in developing, testing, and licensing fungicides to treat ASR and in
identifying and breeding ASR-resistant or -tolerant soybeans. We provided
your staff with a formal briefing on our findings on April 28, 2005. In
that briefing, we cited USDA's lack of funding for ASR oversight as an
area of concern. On May 12, 2005, the Secretary of

Agriculture announced that USDA will use about $1.2 million in contingency
funding to help monitor, report, and manage soybean rust during the 2005
growing season. This report summarizes the results of our April 28th
briefing, and enclosure I presents our briefing slides.

To respond to your questions, we met with USDA and EPA officials and
visited state, industry, and soybean association officials and university
extension faculty in Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, and Minnesota. We
selected these states to provide geographic representation of states where
soybeans are grown. We also conducted a survey of 31 soybean-producing
states in April 2005. Enclosure II describes our scope and methodology,
and enclosure III presents our survey results. We performed our work from
December 2004 through April 2005 in accordance with generally accepted
government auditing standards.

In summary, we found the following:

In May 2002, after ASR was identified in Brazil, USDA began planning for
the introduction of ASR into the continental United States. Three USDA
agencies- the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), the
Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES), and
the Agricultural Research Service (ARS)-the National Plant Board,
industry, and several landgrant universities formed an ad hoc Soybean Rust
Committee. At about the same time, USDA established the National Plant
Diagnostic Network to enable diagnosticians, state regulatory personnel,
and first detectors to communicate information, images, and methods of
detection for ASR and other diseases in a timely manner. In the fall of
2002, USDA began disseminating information and conducting training courses
in an effort to educate growers about how to identify and manage the
disease. In January 2004, APHIS issued a strategic plan that provided
information on the protection, detection, response, and recovery from ASR.
While generally comprehensive in its coverage of issues, the plan was not
fully developed when ASR was first identified in the United States.

Since the initial discovery of ASR in the continental United States, USDA
and others have increased efforts to inform growers about how to identify
and minimize the effects of the disease. In April 2005, USDA issued A
Coordinated Framework for Soybean Rust Surveillance, Reporting,
Prediction, Management and Outreach. The framework includes a surveillance
and monitoring network, a Web-based information management system,
decision criteria for fungicide application, predictive modeling, and
outreach efforts. We surveyed 31 soybeanproducing states to obtain
information about their efforts, in coordination with USDA, to prepare for
and manage ASR. The states generally responded positively when discussing
efforts to educate growers and others on ASR and in setting up sentinel
plot monitoring programs. (Sentinel plots will be planted earlier than
commercial plants to alert growers if ASR is present in their region.)
However, some of the states reported that their diagnostic laboratories
may have insufficient funding and/or staff to test suspected samples for
ASR. In addition, most states indicated that they were either uncertain or
did not believe they

would have enough equipment available to apply fungicides to treat the
disease. The American Soybean Association, representing many of the
nation's largest soybean growers, has also expressed concerns about
whether growers will have access to equipment as well as fungicides in a
timely manner. Finally, USDA's Risk Management Agency has recently
developed additional guidance on the actions growers must take to ensure
that any losses due to ASR are covered under their insurance policies.
However, growers have expressed concerns about what they need to do to
demonstrate good farming practices in treating ASR and the documentation
they must provide to demonstrate that they followed such practices.
Further guidance may be needed because of the uncertainties associated in
dealing with the disease.

USDA, EPA, and others have made significant progress in developing,
testing, and licensing fungicides to treat ASR. As of April 2005, eight
fungicides were registered with EPA for treating ASR. In addition, EPA had
approved emergency exemptions for an additional 11 fungicides to treat ASR
under section 18 of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide
Act. Section 18 exemptions provide designated states with an emergency
exemption to temporarily use a fungicide. As of April 2005, 32 states had
applied for and been granted section 18 exemptions that are effective
through November 10, 2007. USDA estimates that researchers are 5 to 9
years away from identifying or breeding ASR-resistant or -tolerant
soybeans. In addition, on March 10, 2005, USDA removed ASR from the list
of select agents and toxins, which removed certain restrictions and will
aid ongoing research on the disease in the United States.

We met with USDA's Special Assistant for Pest Management Policy and APHIS,
ARS, CSREES, the Economic Research Service (ERS), and RMA officials to
discuss the facts in this report. We also discussed the report with
officials in EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs. USDA and EPA generally
agreed with the information in our report and provided some clarifying
comments that we incorporated as appropriate.

As agreed with your office, unless you publicly announce the contents of
this report earlier, we plan no further distribution of it until 30 days
from the date of this letter. We will then send copies of this report to
the Secretary of Agriculture and the Administrator of EPA. In addition,
this report will be available at no charge on the GAO Web site at
http://www.gao.gov.

If you have any questions about this report or need additional
information, please contact me at (202) 512-3841. Key contributors to this
report were James L. Dishmon, Jr., Chad M. Gorman, Ronald E. Maxon, Jr.,
Lynn M. Musser, and Deborah S. Ortega.

Sincerely yours,

Robert A. Robinson Managing Director, Natural Resources and Environment

Enclosures - 3

                   USDA's Preparation for Asian Soybean Rust

        States' Assessments of Laboratory Facilities and Staff for ASR
                                    Testing
                          Probably or definitely  Probably or              
         ASR Testing      yes                     definitely no  Uncertain
      Sufficient staff?             18                  7            6     
     Sufficient funding?            10                  7           14     

                 Estimated percent                 Number of states 
                       1-25%                         6              
                       26-50%                        7              
                       51-75%                        3              
                       76-99%                        4              
                        100%                         2              
                     Uncertain                       9              

                             Scope and Methodology

To determine the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) efforts to
develop and implement an Asian Soybean Rust (ASR) surveillance strategy to
identify and protect against ASR's entry into the United States and to
test and verify suspect cases, we interviewed officials from USDA's Animal
and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Cooperative State Research,
Education, and Extension Service (CSREES), and Agricultural Research
Service (ARS) to identify actions that the department took before November
2004, when the first case of ASR was confirmed in the continental United
States. In addition, we discussed these actions with USDA's Special
Assistant for Pest Management Policy. We also reviewed pertinent documents
regarding USDA's efforts to educate growers and others to identify,
report, and test suspected cases of ASR.

To determine USDA's strategy for minimizing the effects of ASR now that
the fungus has arrived in the United States, we interviewed officials from
USDA's APHIS, CSREES, ARS, Farm Service Agency (FSA), and Risk Management
Agency (RMA) to identify efforts that have been implemented since November
2004. We also surveyed the 31 soybean-producing states that were included
in USDA's sentinel plot program to obtain information on their efforts to
minimize the effects of ASR through education, training, surveillance, and
testing. We pretested the content and format of the survey questionnaire
with officials in four states. During these pretests, we asked the
officials to assess whether the questions were clear and unbiased and
whether the terms were accurate and precise. We made changes to the
questionnaire based on pretest results. We also conducted site visits to
Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, and Minnesota, where we met with
officials from land-grant universities, field-based extension offices,
state departments of agriculture, and state soybean associations and
check-off boards to gain more in-depth information about their efforts to
mitigate the effects of ASR.1 We also interviewed industry and trade
representatives to discuss the adequacy of available fungicides and
application equipment.

To determine the progress that USDA, the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), and others have made in developing, testing, and licensing
fungicides to treat ASR and in identifying and breeding ASR-resistant or
-tolerant soybeans, we interviewed officials from USDA, EPA, and state
departments of agriculture to obtain information about their efforts to
license fungicides to treat ASR. We also interviewed ARS personnel as well
as researchers from academia and industry and reviewed related reports and
studies regarding efforts to identify and breed ASR-resistant or -tolerant
soybeans.

We performed our work from December 2004 through April 2005 in accordance
with generally accepted government auditing standards.

1A check-off board is an industry-funded marketing and research program
that promotes an agricultural product.

Survey of Soybean-Producing States: Preparations for Asian Soybean Rust

Note: The total for question 6 does not equal the subtotals in 6a and 6b
because some sentinel plots will use both soybeans and non-soybean hosts.

Note: The total for question 11 does not equal the subtotals in 11a and
11b because some sentinel plots will use both soybeans and non-soybean
hosts.

(360578)

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