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Funded Project

Funding Program: Enhancement Grants - State Contacts/IPM Documents

Project Title: Virginia Specialty Crops at Risk Program - IPM Documents Development Project

Project Director (PD): Michael J. Weaver [1]

Lead State: VA Lead Organization: VIrginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Cooperating State(s): North Carolina

Undesignated Funding: $25,000

Start Date: Mar-01-2011 End Date: May-31-2012

Pests Involved: all

Site/Commodity: specialty crops

Area of Emphasis: specialty crops

Summary: Since the inception of the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) there has been an increased national emphasis to maintain viable pest management strategies for economically important crops. FQPA has affected the availability of many existing pest management tools, especially pesticides. This has potentially disrupted the ability of growers to implement effective integrated pest management (IPM) strategies, to manage pest resistance, and to compete in the world market. USDA has funded four regional integrated pest management centers to work with the States to focus on enhancing economic benefits, protecting human health, and preserving natural resources. This includes the preservation of viable IPM strategies. Virginia Tech is working with the Southern Region IPM Center, North Carolina State University (NCSU), and important agricultural stakeholders to create a series of crop pest management profiles, IPM Elements, and pest management strategic plans (PMSP) for important crops grown in Virginia, North Carolina and cooperating states in the Northeast and Southern regions. These documents communicate crop/pest/pest management concerns that may occur as a result of the potential impact of FQPA and the associated needs of stakeholders. Virginia Tech will support the Center through its IPM programs and as a resource center to stakeholders. Virginia Tech will develop three IPM Elements documents (bell peppers, pumpkins, and sweet corn) with an emphasis on locally grown crops, refine its databases of IPM priorities and stakeholders, develop/revise three PMSPs (bell peppers, pumpkins, and sweet corn), create/revise three crop profiles (bell peppers, pumpkins, and sweet corn), and continue the revision of its existing crop profile database. Objectives: Objective 1: Develop crop profiles according to Center standards for Virginia crops. Crop profiles will be written/revised for bell peppers, pumpkins, and sweet corn. Objective 2: Complete outstanding documents and evaluate existing profiles for major revision to meet guidelines that did not exist when the profiles were written. Objective 3: Develop PMSPs with stakeholders in Virginia and cooperating states. A PMSP will be completed for bell peppers, pumpkins, and sweet corn. Objective 4: Maintain and refine the IPM priority list for Virginia to supplement the EPA/BEAD priorities list that was the primary tool used to direct IPM document development. We will maintain an IPM Priorities website from stakeholder surveys over the past five years and will continue to refine the database to include other stakeholder input on which to establish future IPM documents and to enhance IPM programs in Virginia. Objective 5: Develop IPM Elements with stakeholders in Virginia and cooperating states. IPM Elements will be completed for bell peppers, pumpkins, and sweet corn.

Final Report:

Results Crop profiles are complete for bell peppers and pumpkins. Sweet corn has been delayed. This was because other profiles took priority over these and pushed this profile back. Opportunities to link to stakeholders in other areas were available, while we were delayed on finding stakeholders for these crops. A PMSP for bell pepper was completed but not published and those for sweet corn and pumpkins although initiated were pushed back because of stakeholder unavailability. IPM priorities were updated along with the list traditionally done for EPA/BEAD. IPM Elements were delayed for all crops due to priorities for other crops - wine grapes and turfgrass were still in progress. A change in the turfgrass IPM documents presented an opportunity to alter our work to include North Carolina in the project. Time to alter this process took away time to complete this part of the project. Since this year's project linked to the ongoing project from year-to-year, we moved ahead with the turfgrass work rather than wait stakeholder cooperation to open up a window for the other crops. We were able to gain major progress with turfgrass and completed a PMSP for wine grapes by meeting with growers for a second time by conference call. We completed crop profiles, PMSP, and Elements for turfgrass in North Carolina and Virginia during this reporting period.

Outcomes Funds were leveraged to enhance this effort as a result of collaboration with our state pesticide control agency, USDA/NIFA, Virginia Cooperative Extension, and the IR-4 project. This project was integrated into those efforts and vice versa. Our long-term goal is to work with speciality crops and to enhance our pesticide safety education programs by incorporating IPM Elements as a training tool for farmers and specialty crop managers. Benefits continue to be ongoing as the result of IPM Elements projects with Christmas tree, honey bee, wine grape, and turfgrass stakeholders.

Outputs Workshops were hosted that included stakeholders of various types. This included Extension agents and specialists, state pesticide regulators, growers, grower associations, and food processor/direct marketers. We also stated a consumer pesticide newsletter that was used to convey IPM strategies to the public. IPM Elements continue to be used by growers and Extension faculty working with Christmas trees, honey bees, wine grapes, and turfgrass.

Impacts As the result of incorporating IPM Elements for honey bees, Christmas trees, wine grapes, and turfgrass into Extension programs in Virginia and North Carolina, growers were given tools to brand, market, and grow their crops under the best management practices of IPM. Information conveyed through outreach activities associated with meetings and the use of these IPM documents helped the US Environmental Protection Agency and the USDA make decisions on pesticide registration actions in a sound an effective manner.

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