The following is a comment that Ames Herbert, IPM Coordinator for Virginia, submitted to the Federal Register in response to USDA’s request for comments on AFRI:
I am the IPM Coordinator for Virginia Tech and have served in this role since 1996. As IPM Coordinators, one of our biggest challenges is managing the many aspects of large, diverse IPM programs that involve many pest specialists (insect, weed, plant and animal diseases), local extension agents, stakeholders and volunteers. In addition, most of us are also responsible for our own specialty areas (in my case, all insect pest management for Virginia cotton, peanut, soybean and small grains). I could not be doing my job as IPM Coordinator with any degree of success without the support and involvement of the Southern Region IPM Center (SRIPMC) in Raleigh, NC. For example, the SRIPMC was instrumental in helping us develop, and currently ‘hosts’, our “Virginia Ag Pest Advisory”. This advisory delivers weekly pest updates and alerts to over 350 email subscribers in Virginia and throughout the mid Atlantic states. It delivers information to a diverse clientele addressing pest issues for potato growers on Eastern Shore, strawberry growers in the Northern Neck, cotton and peanut growers in the southeast, and soybean growers throughout the eastern half of the state. These alerts have allowed growers to increase their adoption of IPM practices which has resulted in significant reductions in pesticide usage, reduced impact on non-target species and the environment, and increased farm profits.
The SRIPMC is also critical in helping us stay abreast of regional, national and global pest issues. They do this by means of timely newsletters and by hosting meetings at the Center, or wherever in the region is most appropriate, and developing an agenda of issue-critical speakers and presentations. The Center also serves as the organizer and coordinator of ‘emergency issues’ working groups and response efforts. For example, most recently in Virginia our growers have been faced with a huge number of corn and soybean acres being attached and destroyed by slugs feeding on seedlings in the spring. We currently have little knowledge of slug biology or management, and little we can share with growers. This year, the Center funded, with ‘emergency funds’, a working group that consists of specialists and extension agents from Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania that is coordinating research and demonstration activities.
Also, the Center, through their competitive grants program, is now one of the only sources of funding for the production of high quality educational publications/materials. Because of budget shortfalls, our extension service has discontinued publication and distribution of all materials. This represents a loss of one of the most effective means of passing information to clientele, especially ‘limited resource’ growers. In the last few years, successfully funded SRIPMC projects have resulted in the development and distribution of major regional publications on fire ant, cotton pest management, stink bug pest ID and management, and weed identification, to name just a few.
As busy as we are, state IPM Coordinators cannot take care of all the details and cover all the bases without the continued assistance and support of their respective IPM Centers. Eliminating this valuable resource will be yet another step towards reducing the effectiveness of the land-grant mission of information development and delivery.
Ames Herbert
Virginia IPM Coordinator
