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

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. Northeastern Extension and agricultural industry personnel need education to properly provide pest management and resistance management (RM) advice to specialty crop growers.  Many educators realize that RM is a looming issue but lack the tools to properly engage growers.  This initiative would create and coordinate a unified approach to deliver RM education to Northeastern producers. Educators will attend four “train-the-trainer” webinars, augmented by a Moodle resource platform, to acquire a standardized knowledge base. The Key Individuals will produce a core module (slide presentation) and an educational video for reinforcement of RM principles; these tools will be distributed to all webinar registrants. Beneficiaries will participate in two Northeastern producer events to reinforce and exchange knowledge of RM.  Beneficiaries will incorporate information into commodity-specific outreach documents and distribute RM information through existing Extension venues. Surveys will be distributed to capture changes in growers’ knowledge and behavior after attending workshops where educators present RM information.

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 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.

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.  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 polls are attached (December 2016) Webinar Survey Tallies. 

Selected results of the Pre-Webinar Series 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).

Selected results from the Fungicide/Insecticide/Herbicide Webinar Series poll include:

• Less than 1/5 of respondents correctly answered a question about resistance being a genetic change that occurs as a result of a pest being exposed to a pesticide.
• Only 3% correctly answered a question about continual fungicide use always leading to lack of control.
• Half of the respondents did not answer any questions related to insecticide resistance (cause unclear).
• Webinar participants were more likely to correctly answer questions about herbicide resistance than insecticide or fungicide resistance.

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 was uploaded to the SARE reporting portal in December 2015.  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 was been uploaded to the SARE reporting portal in December 2015.  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.

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

A slide presentation (aka ‘Core Module’) was produced by Key Individuals Ghantous, Sandler, Sylvia, and McDermott in September 2016.  It was distributed to the list of registrants on October 14, 2016 (177 total including the 4 Key Individuals).  The module is attached (RM Core Module_final) and is also available at: http://scholarworks.umass.edu/cranberry_outreach_resistance/1/. To download the PDF, click the “Download” button on the right of the screen. To download the PowerPoint, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the link “RM Core Module_final.pptx” under Additional Files. 

The email included text as follows, “The PDF document contains the Key Individuals’ comments regarding various resistance management topics and should be useful for educational outreach. The PowerPoint slide presentation is intended for educators who wish to develop a resistance management educational module for their stakeholders. The presentation can be modified to fit your particular needs. Please include the acknowledgement slide (last slide) in all tailored presentations.” 

We were delayed in achieving this milestone in the proposed time frame.  Collating and organizing the needed material into the slide presentation just took longer than we anticipated. We do not expect that this delay will adversely impact achieving subsequent Project milestones, though their projected time frames may be pushed back a bit as well. Releasing the slide presentation to the beneficiaries in the fall was still in advance of the winter meeting cycle for New England Extension educators.

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.

Recognizing that people are very busy, we created a “Short List” of 12 contacts with whom we will maintain consistent communication over the next year. This Short List is a subset generated from the list of those who expressed desire to participate in at least one phase of the verification process (see attached file; Survey tallies WG Verification w banner). We emailed this group (12/20/16) to determine if they are willing to work with us over the next year.  In addition to the Key Individuals (3 from MA and 1 from NY), the Short List has representation from 9 states and 1 Canadian province. We will use this short list of interested individuals to help us keep track of RM training sessions over the next year.  We sent an email (about using the Core Module) on December 13, 2016 to the list of all webinar registrants (177 total including the 4 Key Individuals).  We requested that they notify us of workshops at which they will hold RM sessions. Attached to that email was a survey that Educators could use during their educational sessions (included in December 2016 report; RM survey to accompany Core Module Presentation).  We will also engage our Short List to promote the use of the survey by educators.

We are not sure if the creation of the RM Project-Specific “Working Groups” will occur at this time.  People are very busy and are already connected to small groups that are relevant to their commodities. We anticipate that our “Short List” will provide sufficient communication links to develop and utilize the Core Module and identify stakeholder needs.  Twenty-eight (28) people indicated that they are interested in obtaining a Certificate of Completion (COC). We will be in communication with these individuals more frequently than the group as a whole and plan that this “group” in conjunction with the Short List will satisfy the milestone.

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.

Please see above regarding the “Short List”.  We have been in contact with 12 individuals and have requested that they keep us informed of workshops in their area and commodity.  This milestone occurred in December 2016, a few months behind our initial projected time line. We do not expect that this delay will adversely impact achieving the Project’s milestones within the context of the granting period.

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

Workshops are being planned as of this writing. We will be able to report on this in more detail in the 2017 report.

Cumulative Milestone Accomplishment Table is attached ( Cumulative Milestone Accomplishment Table Dec 2016).

No report for the following milestones:

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.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Nothing to report at this time.  Planning for workshops related to RM using the Core Module, produced via this grant, is in progress.

Collaborators: