For 2020 and newer grants, please go to https://grants.ipmcenters.org/
Home       Current RFAs       PD User Guide       Projects       Login

Funded Project

Funding Program: IPM Partnership Grants

Project Title: Strengthening and Expanding IPM Practices in the Mushroom Industry

Project Director (PD): Ed Rajotte [1]

Lead State: PA Lead Organization: The Pennsylvania State University

Cooperating State(s): Delaware, Maryland

Undesignated Funding: $13,649

Start Date: Apr-01-2013 End Date: Feb-28-2014

Pests Involved: multiple mushroom pests

Site/Commodity: Mid-Atlantic States/Mushrooms

Area of Emphasis: General IPM

Summary: Hispanics in the mushroom production industry have a great, unmet need for accessible IPM information, education and resources at the individual, organizational and community level. The social, linguistic and economic disadvantages faced by many Hispanics leave them less able than other groups to understand and manage environmental hazards. Low levels of education and English-language proficiency, especially among recent immigrants, limit their ability to access information.The objectives are: 1) Create a Hispanic Growers Advisory Group for IPM education and training 2) Collaboratively adapt and develop innovative culturally appropriate outreach and educational materials that are effective at reaching and communicating with Spanish speaking growers, supervisors and farm workers. 3) Collaboratively develop innovative new IPM outreach, education and training programs in Spanish. The plan to accomplish these goals begins with identifying and establishing cooperative relationships with mushroom growers across state boundaries (PA, DE, MD)and establishing a partnership between the American Mushroom Institute, mushroom growers, the Hispanic community and the PA Integrated Pest Management Program within Penn State Extension. During this phase, we will identify partner/stakeholder needs and priorities for bilingual IPM materials and programming, best methods by which these should be extended and archived. We will collect existing material, identify gaps and then develop new materials and programming to deliver locally, regionally and nationally as appropriate. Finally, we will evaluate the benefits achieved by conducting a survey among supervisors and farm owners Objectives: 1) Create a Hispanic Growers Advisory Group for IPM education and training 2) Collaboratively adapt and develop innovative culturally appropriate outreach and educational materials that are effective at reaching and communicating with Spanish speaking growers, supervisors and farm workers. 3) Collaboratively develop innovative new IPM outreach, education and training programs in Spanish

Final Report:

Impacts The project has provided for future opportunities and trainings by identifying key areas, from the survey, in mushrooms science, disease, and integrated pest management where there is a knowledge gap or indication of topics where information can be reexamined and applied. Through the IPM Mushroom Advisory Committee and conducting IPM break-out sessions at the Penn State Mushroom Short Course, the project identified culturally preferred learning styles of Hispanic farmers and employees through methods such as on farm learning and roundtable discussions. This understanding of preferred learning styles and environments will improve the delivery methods of future workshops and trainings. This helps educators better prepare for a different learning environment as well, and better understand learning styles of their audience. More professional development opportunities have been linked through the established relationships between the American Mushroom Institute, Penn State Extension offices (Chester and Berks counties) and Penn State University faculty across several departments. These new cross department relationships also allow for Penn State to identify other focus areas that may provide future extension programs offered in Spanish. By participating in an additional half dozen mushroom industry related meetings, the survey was shared with several different audiences within the mushroom farm community including the community outreach committee of AMI, the Mushroom Farmers of Pennsylvania, as well as the Food Safety Task Force. Due to survey response and success, future trainings were identified required in disease and pests subject matter. Pests and disease of major concern included the following: Sciarid flies, Verticillum, Trichoderma Green Mold, Phorid flies, Cobweb mold, Bacterial Blotch, Syzigites and Virus diseases. Nearly 90% responded that their farm would benefit from training sessions, workshops and educational materials in English and Spanish on these topics. Although translations of presentations and trainings were not included in the objective, due to our developing partnerships, we were able to provide a few initial classroom trainings in Spanish. Eight different presentations were presented in Spanish for twenty-three mushroom growers at two bi-annual pesticide credit meetings for mushroom farmers (approximately four training hours). These presentations addressed priority topics for mushroom farm managers and employees such as fundamentals of IPM for mushroom growing, best management practices, personal protective equipment, and cultural controls for mushroom growing. These initial meetings at existing events were important in establishing the educators' relationships with target audiences. The presentations also began conversations among farmers who in turn shared the information to other farmers about future opportunities for trainings in Spanish. This additional effort set the groundwork for the potential next phase of the grant to further implement specific training programs.

Outcomes The overall goal of the project was to increase risk management skills of English and especially Spanish speaking/Hispanic members of the mushroom farm community through the enhancement of the IPM application. This goal was approached by creating a Hispanic Growers Advisory Group for IPM education and training. This project was a multi-state program for the mushroom farm community in the northeast including Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland facilitated through Penn State Extension, PSU IPM. We identified and established cooperative relationships with mushroom growers across state boundaries (PA, DE, MD) and established a partnership between the American Mushroom Institute, mushroom growers, various organizations that serve the Hispanic Community and the PA Integrated Pest Management Program within Penn State Extension. We identified partner/stakeholder needs and priorities for bilingual IPM materials and programming, best methods by which these should be extended and archived. We evaluated the needs by holding partner/stakeholders meetings and conducted surveys. The following is a summary of accomplishments: We established cooperation between PSU faculty and staff from several Departments on IPM issues (PA IPM, Horticulture, Plant Pathology, Food Safety, Entomology, Pesticide Education, Rural Health, Farm Safety) and Penn State Cooperative Extension Offices (Chester and Berks). We established cooperative relationships with mushroom growers in the mid-Atlantic region (PA, DE, MD) and established a partnership among the American Mushroom Institute, mushroom growers and Penn State Extension. The Advisory group included members representing Penn State (6), the American Mushroom Institute (3), and mushroom growers (7). We administered a survey during the Summer/Fall of 2013, a break-out discussion at the Penn State Mushroom Short Course in September 2013, the Mid Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention in Hershey, PA on January 2014. We identified culturally preferred learning styles and needs of Hispanic farmers and employees. By creating a learning environment that is less academic and more hands on, such as on the farm learning and roundtable discussions, we allow for a more comfortable atmosphere for participation and discussion. Due to varying levels of education and literacy, teaching in Spanish makes information more accessible to more people. An appropriate education strategy will help transition the next generation of mushroom farm workers while maintaining the mushroom farm communities' leadership and voluntary self-regulation. Surveys of farm owners and upper management were completed in October 2013 and on farm interviews with the Spanish-speaking farm workers were completed in January 2014. Preliminary survey results were analyzed and shared with the Advisory Group to discuss results and future training goals. Some results of the Management Survey (IPM Survey for Owners and Upper Management) are presented here. A total of 69 responses from 40 farms (out of which 51 responses were from English speaking managers and 18 responses were from Spanish speaking managers). A combined 62% responded that they always use IPM; 72.55% of surveys in English and 33.33% of surveys in Spanish. But there is a great variation in the responses when asked the percentage pesticide use reduction due to IPM, answered varied from 90% to 10%. Only 26% were able to correctly answer a simple question related to the length of the life cycle of mushroom's most important pest, Sciarid flies, 28-30 days @ 65° F. Pesticides are used throughout the entire growing cycle of the crop, including harvesting. When asked if their employees understand the importance of IPM used at the farm, only 14.49% responded that their employees always understand the importance of IPM; 44.93% believe they usually understand but not always. A total of 91.30% responded that it would helpful to train the employees on IPM if the sessions could be offered in Spanish. Nearly 90% expressed that it would help their business to have IPM information (articles, manuals, trainings) translated into Spanish. Pests of major concern in their farms were: Sciarid flies, Verticillum, Trichoderma Green Mold, Phorid flies, Cobweb mold, Bacterial Blotch, Syzigites and Virus diseases. Nearly 90% responded that their farm would benefit from training sessions, workshops and educational materials in English and Spanish on these topics. Average percentage loss of crops due to pests ranged from 5-30%. Nearly 89% agree that programs in Spanish would help Spanish-speaking employees pass the pesticide applicator exam. The full survey report is included at the end of this document. Recommendations of the Advisory Group included: 1) Trainings in Spanish on IPM techniques, mushroom pests & diseases (train the trainer sessions for supervisors, in farm trainings for employees); 2) Biannual Pesticide meetings conducted in Spanish (to obtain core and category credits required to maintain pesticide applicator license); 3) Translation of existing educational Materials into Spanish (IPM Manual, articles and literature from PSU Plant Pathology Department, etc); 4) Creation of new educational materials in Spanish (flip book, ebook, posters); 5) Creation of open round table focus group for Hispanic growers; 6) Develop programing in Spanish to help Hispanic growers and employees understand the content of the Private Pesticide Applicator Certification exam.

Report Appendices Final Report [PDF] IPM Survey, Employees, All Farms Responses [PDF] IPM Survey, Owners, English and Spanish Responses [PDF] Hershey 2014, Responses [PDF]

Close Window

Northeastern IPM Center 340 Tower Road Cornell University Ithaca, NY 14853 NortheastIPM.org		Developed by the Center for IPM © Copyright CIPM 2004-2026