BASF is expanding its fungicide offering in Canada with the addition of metconazole to its portfolio of crop protection products.

This active is part of the triazole family of fungicides which are used as both protective and curative treatments against foliar diseases in a range of crops including cereals, corn, soybeans and sugarbeets. They are readily
taken up by the leaves of plants and have a mode of action which inhibits sterol biosynthesis, a critical component of fungal cell membranes.

Metconazole is known to be highly effective in the management of a range of foliar leaf diseases, as well as Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) in cereals and Asian soybean rust in soybeans, two of the most devastating diseases in these crops.

Submission for the first metconazole product will be made to Canadian regulatory authorities in 2007.