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Western Specialty Crop Pipe

Objective

Goals: to minimize economic, food safety, health and ecological risks associated with invasive pests and diseases of specialty crops in the Western USA. To provide access to monitoring data, diagnostic information, pest alerts, decision support tools and up-to-date IPM information in order to minimize invasive species impacts. To provide training, support and timely access to information at critical stages in the initial introduction and epidemic phase of invasive pests and diseases. To serve as a forum for inter-agency cooperation and as an interface with the private sector to maximize potential synergies in the management of invasive pest and disease threats. This PIPE program will provide information, tools and services to minimize risks and uncertainties associated with the three stages of invasive pest management. We will address Stage I, when pests initially invade and when management uncertainties are high, by providing diagnostic training, by supporting monitoring networks, by providing timely alerts and by distributing news and information internationally. We will address Stage II, when pests and diseases may have become established, by providing state of the art tools that enable low risk pesticides to be selected, by providing state of the art decision support tools and up-to-date IPM guidelines. Finally, we will address Stage III, when long-term pest and disease suppression, underpinned by biological control can become established, and when crop productivity may be enhanced by high quality pollination services, protected by wise pesticide selection. Overall, we will assist farmers in stewardship of their crops through the uncertainties associated with initial pest epidemics to a state where pests and diseases can be managed below economic thresholds, with low risks of outbreaks and loss. Many fruit, vegetable and nut crops could be benefited by this program, including grapes, blackberry, almond, apple, citrus, cherry, cranberry, peach, pear, pecan, plum, quince, nectarine, raspberry, strawberry, walnut, fig, Christmas trees, cut flowers, bean, broccoli, celery, melon, tomato, potato, pumpkin, lettuce and spinach. The three year program will establish a WSC-PIPE information portal that addresses current high priority invasive pest and disease threats. The program will assist diagnosticians in delivering rapid and accurate diagnoses and report data to stakeholders via a secure interface that restricts access where this is required. It will establish the technology for pest risk mapping and decision support models, delivering maps for selected pests, it will deliver the PRiME pesticide risk assessment and mitigation model and it will provide detailed information on management of occupational pesticide exposure risks and beneficial insect management in selected specialty crops. Our goal is to be able support at least six pest or disease-crop combinations over three years, with WSC-PIPE core support. We also aim, over the three years of core funding, to obtain contracts from other sources to add to the suite of pests, diseases and commodities that we can address. This external support will sustain the system in the long term.

More information

<p>NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY:<br/> The WSC-PIPE program will establish a comprehensive and integrated approach to reducing severe invasive pest management problems in specialty crops in the Western USA, particularly Pacific Coast states. Technical support will be distributed between the key stages of pest and disease outbreaks, from initial invasion to long-term sustainable management and together establish the basis for precision IPM systems, that represent the state of the art in IPM technologies and pest risk reduction. Many high value tree fruit, small fruit and nut crops could be benefited by this program, including grapes, stone fruit, pome fruit, small fruit and nuts, many of which have their largest scale US production in the West. The program will assist diagnosticians in delivering rapid and accurate diagnoses and report data to stakeholders via a secure interface that
restricts access where this is required. It will establish the technology for pest risk mapping and decision support models, delivering maps for selected pests, it will deliver pesticide risk assessment and mitigation models and it will provide detailed information on management of occupational pesticide exposure risks and beneficial insect management in selected specialty crops. The Objectives are to minimize economic, food safety, health and ecological risks associated with invasive pests and diseases of specialty crops in the Western USA.To provide access to monitoring data, diagnostic information, pest alerts, decision support tools and up-to-date IPM information in order to minimize invasive species impacts.To provide training, support and timely access to information at critical stages in the initial introduction and epidemic phase of invasive pests and diseases.To serve as a forum
for inter-agency cooperation and as an interface with the private sector to maximize potential synergies in the management of invasive pest and disease threats.
<p>APPROACH:<br/> Diagnostic training. The WPDN will coordinate diagnostic activities and testing between CA, OR and WA land grant university diagnostic laboratories, in consultation with state department of agriculture laboratories and USDA APHIS regional and state personnel. They will also coordinate posting of pertinent field observations and recommendations from extension agents and diagnostic results to the web portal that will be established for the PIPE. They will conduct epidemiological analysis where appropriate, in consultation with the WIPMC WWG and NPDN colleagues. Monitoring systems development. The IPPC, in cooperation with members of the WIPMC Western Weather Systems Workgroup, will produce high quality phenology/degree-day map layers to be imported into APHIS GIS systems and the IPPC and UCIPM webservices for production of maps that allow scheduling of
survey trap placement and/or insect/disease scouting. Pest and disease alerts: we will enable pest alerts to be distributed from diagnosticians and program cooperators via the WSC-PIPE interface, and also by e-mail and text alerts to subscribing users. International news distribution: News items and results of this program will be shared internationally, through IPMnet NEWS, published by the IPPC. The NEWS currently reaches 157 countries every 6 weeks, and it is the premier global news source devoted solely to IPM. Pesticide Risk Mitigation Engine (PRiME): The Pesticide Risk Mitigation Engine, http://www.ipminstitute.org/prime/index.htm is under development under NRCS CIG program sponsorship, lead by the IPM Institute. This tool has already been demonstrated within the Oregon IPM program. We will incorporate crop-specific data for western specialty crops over the three years of the
project (under a sub-award with the IPM Institute). Occupational exposure risk assessment and management: We will develop specialized uses for the human health risk assessment software developed by the Lifeline Group http://www.thelifelinegroup.org/, in order to quantify human health risks posed by altered or increased pesticide use to workers on specialty crop orchards and farms. IPM guidelines and biological pest suppression: The WSC-PIPE team will develop updated IPM guidelines where these are required, for a number of regional specialty crop commodities. We will develop or adapt guidelines for two major regional specialty crops per annum.

Investigators
Jepson, Paul
Institution
Oregon State University
Start date
2010
End date
2014
Project number
ORE00476
Accession number
223836
Commodities