Grant Aims to Share Pest Management Information With More Diverse Audience

By Julie Harker

The University of Missouri’s Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program has received a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to strengthen its reach to diverse clientele with sustainable pest management practices.

The grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture aims to enhance the ability to get important pest management information out to clients who need it.

Juan Cabrera-Garcia, state extension specialist in horticulture, will work with MU Extension horticulture field specialists engaged with Amish and Hispanic farmers to assess their needs and help build their pest management strategies. Many farmers in these communities focus on specialty crops such as tomatoes. Relationships have already been established between specialists and growers through grower groups such as Alianzas, a program created to enhance the ability of MU Extension and partners to respond to the needs of Latinx immigrants.

In the Amish community, chemicals are seldom used, but there are strategies and tools to help them with pest management. “For example, tomatoes and cucurbits (squash, pumpkin, zucchini) might be suffering from a soil disease, and certain practices can help alleviate the problem,” said Mandy Bish, MU Extension state crop pathologist and IPM coordinator. “Practices could include improving how well water drains from the field, raising the soil beds and containing the infected soil during the growing season to protect it from fungal disease.”

The grant will also fund work to advance the program’s pest monitoring network, which will include corn leafhopper trapping for the first time. MU Extension state entomologist Ivair Valmorbida will work with extension field specialists in agronomy to increase the number of pest monitoring sites across Missouri. Pest alerts that arise through the pest monitoring network efforts are displayed on the MU IPM webpage and sent out through the MU IPM text alert system.

The funding will also provide support to the MU Plant Diagnostic Clinic, led by Peng Tian. The clinic has been busy in 2024 confirming new pests such as red crown rot of soybean and corn leafhopper, which causes corn stunt disease.

Bish says the funding will help keep the clinic open for use by farmers, retailers, homeowners and specialty crop producers to identify pests of their plants.

In addition, Bish and MU Extension weed scientist Kevin Bradley will train graduate students as part of an extension training assistantship. The students who have IPM-related research projects will engage in activities that help them learn to effectively share their research information with stakeholders in various formats, including field days, videos and written materials.

“Missouri is a diverse state that is home to 95,000 farms and has many IPM-related needs,” said Bish. “Each region has distinct clientele and integrated pest management needs.”

The state ranks in the top 10 for corn, soybean, forage, rice and cotton production, according to the Missouri Department of Agriculture. Additionally, specialty crops are produced in nearly 90% of Missouri counties.