Minor crop

Examples 3 and 4 illustrate a potential application of allelo-pathic chemicals in today s agricultural practices, as illustrated in Figure 3 to plant allelopathlc plants as a cover crop in the field, especially for tree crops such as peach and citrus. Such plants produce allelopathlc chemicals to control soil pests such as nematodes. This approach will be appreciated today, because there is no effective agent to control soil pests on a field scale and, as has been noted, there is no economic incentive for a chemical company to develop a minor-crop pesticide. 

The sum of com and sorghum sector costs, off-farm costs and costs to minor crops is 1.66 billion without triazines and 1.47 billion without atrazine. This includes the savings to taxpayers from lower farm program payments, based... 

Figure 1. Representation of minor crops, including neglected and underutilised species in genebanks (Adopted from Padulosi et al., 2002)...

Jerusalem artichoke has predominantly been cultivated in North America and Northern Europe as a minor crop. The recent literature, however, includes reports of cultivation in China, Korea, Egypt, Australia, and New Zealand (e.g., Judd, 2003 Lee et al., 1985 Ragab et al., 2003). 

At present, the number of diseases that represent significant problems for the Jerusalem artichoke are only a fraction of that for sunflower (Gulya and Masirevic, 1991). This is no doubt due in part to the fact that the Jerusalem artichoke is currently a very minor crop in North America. As the acreage in production increases, in all probability, the litany of pathogens causing significant production or postharvest problems will increase. The following critiques some of the more serious diseases of Jerusalem artichoke. 

Every research area could provide examples of the damage done by the blanket application of the proposition. Even where it seems most relevant, there are regrettable consequences. If a drug company has to fund even the most fundamental research that might lead to profit, it will only embark on the development phase where a return on the huge investment can be foreseen. Thus minority requirements are of no interest small markets (for example, minor crops, diseases that only affect a few people or only poor people), air or sea pollution where no owner can be identified, and research where there is no product or service to sell - all will be ignored. 

As a result of a lack of international reference standards for many commodities, particularly those produced in developing countries, pesticide residues have increasingly become a non-tariff barrier in international trade. This has been parent in several recent episodes involving the movement of minor crops in both regional and international bade. The port of many tropical fruits to Europe and the US is subject to the limit of determination for enforcement when national tolerances are not available. Though outright rejection usually does not take immediate effect, notice of the intention is always served to relevant national authorities. Many countries in the devele ing world are solely dependent on the Codex standards and in the event of their non-availability, the limit of determination is almost automatically lied. Such a practice is a common phenomenon... 

Minor crops such as tropical fruits, vegetables, spices, tea, etc. are traded in substantial amounts in international trade. The total amount traded is usually small in comparison with other major crops. These may however, contribute significantly to the national coffers of small developing countries. As illustrated in Table 1, Codex MRLs for many of these commodities are not available for reference as international food standards. This may be attributed to inadequate baseline data on residue trials and the low priority accorded by Codex to the elaboration of these MRLs. 

The possibility of regional evaluation of residue trial data for minor crops should be explored by the WHO/FAO and JMPR. This could ameliorate the problem of low priority accorded to the elaboration of minor crops moving in international trade. 

The Codex classification of crops could be reviewed to include commodities from developing countries. The classification may be revised in a major way to take into consideration the possibility of extrapolation for minor crops. 

Developing countries should identify on a priority basis minor crops of economic importance to them. These could be put forward to the CCPR for inclusion in the Priority List or directly to the JMPR for consideration of extrapolation. The submission must also be accompanied by detailed information as outlined in the FAO Manual on Submission and Evaluation of Pesticide Residues Data for the Estimation of Maximum Residue Levels in Food and Feed for the estimation of group MRLs [2]. 

Industrial use of safflower oil has declined to 2-3% of the total market. Conjugated safflower oil (52) competes with dehydrated castor or tung oils and very high quality alkyds. Table 1 illustrates the rise and fall of safflower supply and disappearance in the United States in comparison with major and minor crops (53). 

Ibid., p. 1. To take a minor crop, of the peas planted commercially in 1969, 96 percent were in only two varieties. A small dress rehearsal for the corn blight of 1970 could have been witnessed in the case of oats. A "miracle oat, Victoria, was... 

Diphenylcyclopropenone (2.06 g, 10 mmol) was dissolved in anhyd 1,2-dichloroethane (20 mL) and alkylated with triethyloxonium tetrafluoroborate (1.90 g, 10 mmol). After 15 min, a solution of 5,5-dimethylcyclohexane-l,3-dione (1.40 g, 10 mmol) in 1,2-dichloroethane (20 mL) was added then a solution of i-PfjNEt (1.30 g, 10 mmol) in 1,2-dichloroethane (20 mL) was added dropwise over a 90-min period with efficient stirring. Then, the resulting solution was stirred for a further 3 min and the solvent was evaporated in vacuo. The residue was triturated with benzene (40 mL) and the precipitated amine hydro-tetrafluoroborate salt was filtered off. Evaporation of the benzene solution yielded the main portion of crude product a second (minor) crop was obtained as insoluble material when the hydrotetrafluoroborate salt was dissolved in HjO. Both fractions were combined and recrystallized (EtOH) yield 2.10 g (64%) mpl98-199=C. 

Rye.—Rye is, comparatively speaking, a minor crop in the United States. The only species under cultivation is the common rye Secale cereale. 

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