Training IPM Professionals in Rural Areas: A Model to Achieve Sustainable Knowledge

View the project final report

• 2016 annual report

Commodities

• Agronomic: corn, oats, potatoes, sorghum (milo), sugarbeets, wheat
• Vegetables: beans, greens (leafy), onions, sweet corn, tomatoes

Practices

• Education and Training: extension, workshop
• Pest Management: biological control, chemical control, cultural control, disease vectors, economic threshold, eradication, field monitoring/scouting, genetic resistance, integrated pest management, mating disruption, physical control, mulching - plastic, cultivation, prevention, row covers (for pests), sanitation, soil solarization, trap crops, traps, mulching - vegetative, weather monitoring, weed ecology

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a fundamental component of sustainable agriculture. Its success depends upon the ability of practitioners to correctly identify pests, assess their impact, and select appropriate management tactics. Our project will provide agriculture personnel from the Pacific Northwest with a high quality, multifaceted training program to increase their knowledge of IPM and disseminate that knowledge throughout the region. The program will include two and one-half day experiential learning workshops that will address identification of pest and beneficial organisms, pest damage assessments, scouting techniques, basic experimental methods, and reporting skills. Workshops will be offered at four locations across the Pacific Northwest. To maximize learning, workshops will be preceded by webinar trainings that demonstrate how to collect and prepare insects, weeds and diseases of major crops, e.g. wheat, potatoes, corn and onions, for identification. To reinforce the participants’ learning and to broaden the impact of the project, participants will be asked to initiate their own outreach efforts after taking the course. Course plans and educational materials also will be publicly available to encourage others to conduct similar programs. The proposed project builds upon the success of a similar, insect-only course funded by WSARE (2009-2011 Professional Development Program EW09-001: “Empowering Ag Professionals through a Beneficial and Pest Insect Train-the Trainer Course”). The proposed project will be more comprehensive in content, and by making its resources publicly available, we will further support and expand the cadre of agricultural professionals who can bring a more balanced and ecological approach to agriculture.

Develop the template and materials for ongoing educational activities that will increase the sustainability of agriculture in the Pacific Northwest by training agriculturists to better identify pest and beneficial organisms, thus leading to improved IPM and leading to a more balanced and ecological approach to agriculture.