Project Overview
Annual Reports
Commodities
- Agronomic: corn, hops
- Fruits: apples, berries (other), berries (blueberries), berries (brambles), cherries, grapes, peaches, berries (strawberries)
- Nuts: chestnuts
- Vegetables: asparagus, beans, cucurbits, sweet corn, tomatoes
Practices
- Crop Production: application rate management
- Pest Management: biological control, chemical control, cultural control, disease vectors, economic threshold, eradication, field monitoring/scouting, genetic resistance, integrated pest management, mating disruption, prevention, sanitation, traps, weather monitoring, weed ecology
- Production Systems: holistic management
Abstract:
Following a successful pilot IPM Academy in 2012, MSU Educators and staff worked to expand the MSU IPM program reach in 2013 and 2014 and amplify the program’s impact by training sustainable agriculture educators and advisors from public and private sectors through programming and resource development.
Project objectives:
The goal of the Academy was to directly train 200 sustainable agriculture educators and advisors in 2013-14. The Academy provided them with professional development opportunities and resources to support their future sustainable agriculture programming including crop-specific IPM bulletins, field guides and reference resources.
The short-term goals of the program included improved identification of sustainable agriculture resources, improved understanding of IPM-based sustainable agricultural practices, increased understanding of timely obstacles to sustainable agricultural practices, and an improved understanding of technology that supports sustainable agricultural practices in 90% of Academy attendees.
Intermediate goals include increased dissemination of sustainable agriculture resources such as bulletins and web resources, increased use of sustainable agriculture resources in educational programming or consultations, and increased distribution of information regarding technology that supports sustainable agriculture.
The ultimate goal of the Academy and its associated resources is to increase the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices that protect environmental quality and improve productivity.