Unifying resistance management education for vegetable and fruit production in the Northeast

Unifying resistance management education for vegetable and fruit production in the Northeast

Summary

The sustainability of 270,000 acres of Northeastern fruit and vegetable production, valued at $1.73B, depends on the ability of growers to manage pests. Selection and use of available pesticides, with varied modes of actions (MoA), must be correct and judicious to forestall or avoid resistance development. Growers currently receive management information from various sources (e.g., Extension, pest advisers), but the information delivered is not necessarily consistent and comprehensive. In a 2014 survey of 41 growers, 11 of 16 respondents felt they had a good understanding of resistance management (RM), but numbers quickly declined when asked to rate their knowledge of pesticide MoA. All were concerned that pesticide use will increase due to resistance issues and 80% expressed concerns about negative environmental impacts associated with using marginal or ineffective pesticides. Loss of pesticide efficacy due to resistance would seriously impact growers as many operate at a low profit margin (4 Northeastern states averaged less than $5,100 net cash income per farm). Workshops are the primary way growers want to receive education about RM.

Objectives/Performance Targets

After participating in on-line webinar and Moodle sessions on the principles and practices of RM within an IPM context, 25 Extension and agricultural industry personnel from 8 Northeastern states develop crop-specific training modules and materials to transfer this knowledge to 800 Northeast specialty crop growers who farm 36,000 acres.

Accomplishments/Milestones

1) 200 Northeast Extension and industry personnel receive announcements and are invited to participate in on-line Resistance Management (RM) training. Sept-Nov 2015.

All State Extension offices in the NE-SARE region were contacted and asked to distribute the announcement flyer (uploaded to SARE reporting portal) to their departments. This included Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Vermont, and Washington, D.C.

 Crop Commodities Regional Specialists List for Cornell University (ca. 45 people)

 Northeastern Berry Call-in list (ca. 50 people)

 Flyers were distributed at Cornell in-service events held in Oct-Nov (ca. 100 people)

 We also contacted Northeastern Weed Science Society (NEWSS, ca. 400 on mailing list), Northeastern American Society of Horticultural Science (NEASHS, ca. 100 people on mailing list), and Northeast American Phytopathological Society (NEAPS, ca. 315 people on mailing list) and asked them to distribute the flyer to their memberships.

 We contacted Northeastern chemical representatives individually and asked them to share the info with their colleagues (Arysta, Bayer, Dow, DuPont, Gowan, Monsanto, Nufarm, Syngenta, UPI, and Valent). The announcement may have reached 30-40 people within the chemical industry community.

 Both SARE and NE-IPM Center announced the webinar series on their respective web sites.

Demographics of Webinar Registrants (181 total):

Profession/Affiliation

70 Extension personnel

21 University personnel (U.S.)

15 Environmental Protection Agency

14 Canadian government

12 U.S. chemical company representatives

10 Growers

7 State government

6 Businesses; Individuals

5 Consultants

4 IR-4; USDA

2 Non-profit organizations; Canadian chemical company representatives

1 Agricultural supply representative; Canadian university; African agricultural ministry

Locations-Domestic

24 New York

16 Connecticut; Massachusetts

15 Virginia

14 Pennsylvania

10 New Jersey

8 Washington, D.C.

7 Maine; Nebraska

5 Maryland

4 Colorado; Rhode Island; West Virginia

3 Florida; Ohio; Vermont

2 Delaware; Georgia; Illinois; Iowa

1 California; Kansas; Michigan; New Hampshire; North Carolina; Oregon; Utah

Locations-International

16 Ontario

2 Nova Scotia; Quebec

1 Lithuania; Sierra Leone; Switzerland

Even with some overlap of membership lists, we estimate flyers sent through these mailing lists reached ca. 800 different people. Although we do not have exact numbers for distribution, we are confident we met the milestone of inviting 200 personnel and likely exceeded our target.

2) 75 beneficiaries, including Key Individuals, participate in on-line course (4 webinars and Moodle) to augment and reinforce knowledge about MoA and RM. Dec 2015-Feb 2016.

According to our tallies thus far, 111 different people participated in the webinar series. We are still verifying attendee demographics, but the basic breakdown thus far was as follows:

         Webinar 1: Introduction to General Principles of RM (McGrath), 74 participants

         Webinar 2: Fungicide RM (McGrath), 78 participants

         Webinar 3: Insecticide RM (Alyokhin), 39 participants*

         Webinar 4: Herbicide RM (Bonanno), 47 participants

         16 people attended 4 webinars

         24 people attended 3 webinars

         31 people attended 2 webinars

         40 people attended 1 webinar

         By Affiliation:

53 Extension personnel

14 Industry/Consultants

11 Federal government (EPA, USDA, IR-4)

11 University personnel

11 Canadian government/research

5 State government

4 Farmers

2 Non-profit representatives

The webinars were held Monday November 30, Thursday December 3, Monday December 7, and Thursday December 10 in the order and on the topics as noted above. The webinars were hosted by Cornell University and lasted for approximately 1 hour each (2:30-3:30 EST). The webinars were archived on the Moodle platform housed on Cornell Cooperative Extension Distance Learning Center (http://moodle.cce.cornell.edu/RME101).

*We had a technical glitch on the Insecticide RM webinar. The recording was made for the first 6 minutes but then aborted. Dr. Alyokhin was kind enough to repeat the webinar so the entire presentation could be archived on the Moodle. We extended an invitation to all registrants to attend the “re-do”. Six (6) people attended the repeated webinar.   The participant number of 39 was based on the saved chat information and poll data from the first insecticide RM presentation and the repeated webinar.

3) Participants complete exit surveys; data collated and analyzed by Key Individuals. Areas requiring follow-up are identified and addressed. Feb-Mar 2016.

Participants were polled prior to the start of each webinar to gain a cursory assessment of their “entry knowledge” of the webinar topic. We are still gathering data relevant to these polls. Not all attendees participated in the polls, but response rates were high: 71 for Webinar 1 (96%), 67 for Webinar 2 (81%), 35 for Webinar 3 (90%), and 40 for Webinar 4 (85%). Results from the poll administered prior to Webinar 1 are uploaded to the SARE reporting portal. Results from Webinars 2-4 are being tallied and formatted. Selected results of the first poll include:

• About half of attendees rated their knowledge of RM as “average”.
• 54% of attendees were from Extension, 11% from the Federal government and 7% from industry.
• 24% listed Pest Management as their area of expertise, 13% cited Sustainable agriculture, and 11% said Entomology, Plant Pathology, and Weed Science (respondents could choose more than one category).

Moodle Platform: Twenty-three (23) people “introduced” themselves on the Moodle. The results from the poll from Webinar 1 are posted on the Moodle. Answers to the RM questions are included in the posting. All four webinars are accessible from the Moodle in streaming mode, downloadable mode, and as a PowerPoint presentation. We should be able to gather metrics on Moodle usage and if accessible, we will report these in a future report. The results from polls for Webinars 2-4 will be uploaded to the Moodle as soon as they are ready.

Demographic Survey. Using Survey Monkey, we invited registrants to complete a demographic survey; 56 attendees submitted responses. The survey has been uploaded to the SARE reporting portal. We were interested to know their area(s) of expertise and in what areas they felt competent to give RM advice. We also queried to assess their interest to participate in future activities related to the grant. Just over half of the respondents (29 people) indicated that they would be interested in receiving a “Certificate of Completion (COC)”, which would involve participation in at least 2 webinars, training growers, and participating in the verification process. Milestone #11 calls for 20 people to receive a COC, so we have confidence that we can reach that milestone based on these data.

Needs Assessment Survey. Prior to being awarded this grant, we surveyed Northeastern educators and growers to document the need for the webinar series and other components proposed in the grant. The results were compiled and posted on the Moodle. The document has been uploaded to the SARE reporting portal. It is also available on UMass ScholarWorks:

Sandler, H.A., L. McDermott, K.M. Ghantous, and D. Medeiros, 2015. Assessment of resistance management education and experience of educators and growers in the Northeast. http://scholarworks.umass.edu/cranberry_research_repts/14.

No report for the remaining milestones.

4) Key Individuals produce and electronically distribute one core RM module and one video. Mar-May 2016.

5) Key Individuals organize 35 beneficiaries into working groups to identify stakeholder needs regarding RM. Five people from each commodity outreach group are identified and meet to develop tailored education materials and modules (using the core module developed above) for their specialty crop growers. June-Aug 2016.

6) Designated commodity specialists provide oral feedback to Key Individuals regarding preparation for educational programs utilizing the video and their ‘tailored’ module. June-Aug 2016.

7) Commodity outreach leaders will plan 10 workshops that are announced through Extension network; educational materials are finalized. Sept-Dec 2016.

8) 25 educators lead workshops attended by 800 growers where the core module and tailored RM/IPM educational programs are presented and administer surveys to document changes in knowledge and anticipated implementation of RM are administered. 6 educators also plan and conduct RM sessions at NY Expo and NEFVC. Jan-Dec 2017.

9) 70 growers interact one-on-one with Extension personnel to implement specific RM recommendations on their farms. 20 growers are interviewed by commodity Extension personnel to determine secondary beneficiary behavior changes. April-Sept 2017.

10) 25 primary beneficiaries are formally interviewed to capture changes and challenges regarding grower education programs. Apr-Nov 2017.

11) 20 primary beneficiaries complete end-of-project verification survey to report on educational programs, experiences from workshops, and one-on-one interactions. Certificates of Completion are issued. Nov 2017-April 2018.

• Pre-proposal survey results
• flyer
• Sandler ENE15-140
• Pre-webinar Poll Results Nov. 30, 2015
• Demographic Survey Dec 2015-Questions

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Nothing to report to date.

Collaborators: