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Funded Project

Funding Program: Enhancement Grants - State Contacts/IPM Documents

Project Title: Southern Region IPM Network for Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and Related IPM Documents

Project Director (PD): Mark Mossler [1]

Lead State: FL Lead Organization: University of Florida

Undesignated Funding: $60,720

Start Date: Jul-01-2006 End Date: Jun-30-2007

Summary: The Florida Pest Management Information Program (PMIP) has cooperated with the USDA CSREES Integrated Pest Management Centers since the implementation of the project through the auspices of the Pesticide Information Office at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Under program grants, the Florida PMIP has provided top-down and bottom-up Florida-specific information to federal agencies and other stakeholders through its communication network. In addition to Florida, the program extends these services to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Future funding ensures the viability of this network. The proposal also outlines revision of approximately 20 crop profiles and the creation of several new profiles, including aquatics, radish, and sugarcane. A reduced pesticide use analysis is also proposed for Florida-grown strawberry. Objectives: Objective 1: Maintain the existing SRIPMC state contact for Florida, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Objective 2: Update current crop profiles including the tropical fruit, carrot, celery, potato, and major citrus (approximately 20 crops) and create three new profiles (aquatics, radish, sugarcane). Objective 3: Prepare a pesticide use analysis for Florida strawberry to document the benefit of IPM adoption in this crop and estimate the amount of reduction in the use of restricted and danger-labeled pesticides.

Website: Florida Pesticide Information Office

Final Report:

Serve as primary contact for federal regulatory inquiries (State Contact only, required) The Florida Contact, who also covers the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, responded to over a dozen requests for specific information over the report period. Some of the issues were very specific while others were quite broad. Very few questions pertained to the Caribbean and few responses were obtained from this network. For Florida, the requests were circulated through the Florida Pest Management Information Program (FPMIP) network for response. Among the topics were: formetanate/citrus, dimethoate/citrus, aldicarb/sweetpotato, peanut, and reregistration, malathion/Christmas tree and blueberry, metaldehyde pricing, fumigants/orchards, methomyl and thiodicarb/sweetcorn and lettuce, fumigant needs, ferbam/grape and cherry, rodenticides, and nicotine. The responses provided by the state contact were believed to address the request for each query. The challenge in obtaining answers for regulatory agencies lies in knowing where the information resides. Often, Extension does not have the answer directly, so the state contact must approach growers directly or find associations that represent the growers. The other challenge is securing funding as UF requests 25 percent in IDCs.

Document responses to other entities (State Contact only, strongly encouraged) The state contact also serves to provide information to entities other than the SRIPMC, USDA and EPA. The state contact has weekly interactions with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the Farm Bureau, as well as associations such as the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association. These stakeholders are consulted regarding pest management activities and regulatory issues that may affect them and their members. The FPMIP interacts with programs such as IPM Florida and the IPM programs at Florida A&M University. The monthly newsletter (http://www.pested.ifas.ufl.edu/newsletters/october2007/index.htm) circulated to over 1,300 subscribers reaches mostly Florida readers, but also regional and international stakeholders as well. The FPMIP facilitates registration review, promulgates educational content, and consults on technical questions regarding pesticide use and pest management.

Establish and maintain a stakeholder network (State Contact only, required) The aforementioned responses largely describe the stakeholder network. The FPMIP routes information regarding actions by the federal government through the Caribbean or Florida networks to obtain input. These networks consist of IPM coordinators and other people that have pest management-related positions. The input is then forwarded back up to federal regulators who use it in their decisions. The FPMIP is housed in the Pesticide Information Office at UF. The state contact works in conjunction with the pesticide and PSEP coordinator for UF, Dr. Fred Fishel. The state contact also interacts with the UF IPM coordinator, Dr. Norm Leppla, in a team manner for deliverables as well as in a consultative manner regarding educational programming and extension activities. The state contact may soon cover state IR-4 responsibilities as the current person is due to retire.

Coordination and oversight of IPM Documents in the state (State Contact only, required) The state contact oversees crop profiles and pest management strategic plans that have been promulgated over the years under the IPM Centers or NAPIAP. Caribbean profiles are relatively current. Florida profiles revised over the report period include carrot, celery, and citrus (orange and grapefruit). These profiles had pre-2000 dates and needed to be revised. An aquatics profile is the first non-food profile. A Florida sugarcane profile is currently in the survey stages. The state contact has also revised the strawberry and watermelon PMSPs to address new pests of these crops.

Annual assessment prioritizing Crop Profiles and PMSPs (State Contact only, required) Although largely described under heading #4, the state contact is continually assessing those profiles for revision and creation. Funding has been secured to revise sweetcorn, potato, beef cattle and peanut profiles in 2007. The majority of other profiles are post-2000. In addition to date, economic benefit and new pests drive profile and PMSP production.

Expertise List (State Contact only, required) A list of IPM-related expertise was sent to the SRIPMC in 2006 and has recently been updated in September 2007.

Web Site (State Contact only, required) The state contacts website is found at: http://www.pested.ifas.ufl.edu/sipm/flpmip.html The website confirms to those standards listed in the RFA except for a link to annual reports, which will be made after the November state contact meeting.

Annual Meeting (State Contact only, required) The state contact was unable to attend the 2006 meeting in Orlando due to medical reasons. The budget for that meeting is to be combined with the budget for the 2007 meeting in Roanoke, VA to approximately cover anticipated expenses.

Additional Activites (State Contact only, optional) In addition to those activities listed previously, the state contact interacts with the public and media in the form of telephone calls and emails. The contact also teaches Doctor of Plant Medicine students state and federal pesticide regulations. The contact also team teaches a graduate course in pesticides. Approximately $20,000 was secured during the period by the state contact for research regarding pesticide resistance in whitefly.

Discussion (State Contact and IPM Documents, optional) The major concern looking forward is funding. With institutions requesting maximum IDCs and inflation (and minimal raises), the funding for the state contact will be inadequate if capped at $25,000 per state. A figure of $40,000 will offset these issues over the next center cycle.

IPM Documents Produced (IPM Documents only, required) This information has been presented under headings #4 and #5. Under Existing Information About This Project on the final report page, a number of profile revisions/creations are listed. This was the list before a substantial budget decrease by the review committee. The documents agreed to after the revision were new profiles for aquatics and sugarcane and revisions for citrus, carrot, and celery. An issue must also be mentioned for the sugarcane crop profile which was slated for completion by the end of the reporting period (no-cost extension requested). This is a group of growers under intense political pressure regarding pesticides/nutrients and water quality with regard to the Everglades. Procuring use information has taken much longer than anticipated. The FPMIP hopes to have this profile completed by the end of the next reporting period.

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