Source: UNIV OF WISCONSIN submitted to NRP
KILLING THEM SOFTLY: DEFINING THE FUTURE OF INSECT MATING DISRUPTION IN SPECIALTY CROPS
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
COMPLETE
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1029169
Grant No.
2022-51181-38245
Cumulative Award Amt.
$49,979.00
Proposal No.
2022-05331
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 1, 2022
Project End Date
Aug 31, 2023
Grant Year
2022
Program Code
[SCRI]- Specialty Crop Research Initiative
Recipient Organization
UNIV OF WISCONSIN
21 N PARK ST STE 6401
MADISON,WI 53715-1218
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Pheromone-mediated mating disruption (MD) has become a critical sustainable pest management approach for US specialty crops. MD is an insect Integrated Pest Management strategy that is effective and yet under-utilized by stakeholders as it presents challenges for successful implementation that this project will directly address. This planning project relates to the SCRI focus area 1.e. Pest and disease management. The outputs of our Research and Extension Planning Project will be 1) the establishment of a national MD research and extension community of practice; 2) a stakeholder survey identifying MD research priorities; and 3) a transdisciplinary, multi-state, multi-commodity 2023 SCRI CAP grant proposal. The CAP proposal will aim to increase adoption and develop improved MD technologies within a socio-economic framework that integrates research and extension activities centered around stakeholder needs. Our proposed activities include: monthly conference calls, a stakeholder survey, and a planning meeting to be held in Chicago, IL in November 2022, that will culminate in the development of a full SCRI CAP proposal to be submitted in 2023. Our project has the explicit support of 24 stakeholders who have been engaged in the development of this planning proposal and will continue to play an integral role in identifying priorities in the 2023 proposal. Specialty crop stakeholders, including growers, MD manufacturers and distributors, and extension educators will benefit from this project. Increased MD adoption will improve environmental quality of agroecosystems, enhance farm worker safety, reduce pesticide residues, preserve beneficial insects, and improve grower profitability.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
30%
Applied
50%
Developmental
20%
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
21631101130100%
Knowledge Area
216 - Integrated Pest Management Systems;

Subject Of Investigation
3110 - Insects;

Field Of Science
1130 - Entomology and acarology;
Goals / Objectives
The objectives of this Planning Grant project are to:Establish the first national research and extension community of practice on MD;Engage stakeholders in a survey to identify MD research priorities; andDevelop a transdisciplinary, multi-state, multi-commodity SCRI CAP research and extension grant proposal. The CAP proposal will aim to increase adoption and develop improved MD technologies within a socio-economic framework that integrates research and extension activities centered around stakeholder needs.Long-term goals.The long-term outcomes of this project will: 1) improve existing MD programs; 2) further develop our fundamental understanding of why MD works or doesn't work across systems and regions; 3) identify new potential MD targets in specialty crops; 4) train the next generation of MD research and extension professionals; 5) incorporate cost-effective MD technologies into IPM programs; and 6) extend research results and provide updated IPM practices to stakeholders.
Project Methods
Pre-meeting planning and stakeholder engagementProject planning will begin with monthly online meetings coordinated by the project manager and PD. At these meetings, we will develop an online stakeholder survey to assess the current level of adoption of MD in specialty crops, barriers to adoption, gaps in knowledge, and future research and extension directions. We will use a web survey using Qualtrics™. This survey will be conducted in fruit and vegetable growing regions by the PIs, disseminated at in-person meetings and through on-line extension blogs and listservs. We will work with regional extension professionals and commodity groups to rely on their electronic mailing lists to distribute the survey link to individual growers. The web survey will provide an accurate needs assessment and ensure the anonymity of respondents. The results of the survey will be analyzed by Co-PI McRoberts and presented at the planning meeting and will be used to guide discussions and priorities at the meeting. During these online meetings, we will also plan and further develop the agenda for the planning meeting.Proposed agenda for the planning meetingThe project team will assemble specialty crop researchers, stakeholders, and industry partners from the North Central, North East, South East, and Western regions that will convene for a two day in-person planning meeting in Chicago, IL on November 3-4, 2022. At this meeting, we will discuss the results of the survey, and identify research and extension objectives that will be the foundation for the development of a 2023 USDA SCRI CAP proposal. The team will consist of at least as many commodity representatives, industry stakeholders, and growers as researchers, ensuring that the proposal is centered around stakeholder priorities and needs. We anticipate that 25 participants will be involved, including the 11 members of this team (PD, Co-PD, PIs, and Collaborators) and 14 commodity group representatives and stakeholders, some of whom have already expressed their strong interest in participating (see letters of support). In order to launch discussions, we will hold two moderated panels: Panel 1 with MD product manufacturers and Panel 2 with grower stakeholders (agenda presented in Appendix Z). To facilitate the panel discussions, questions will be emailed in advance to the panel participants and the panels will be moderated by our team members. The focus of these panel discussions will be to identify barriers to adoption and start thinking about how to address these barriers in the SCRI CAP proposal.Potential Pitfall:There could be an issue involving MD product manufacturer participation due to the proprietary nature of product development. We have considered this and will address this by: 1) developing questions that do not require participants to discuss specific R&D plans; 2) provide questions in advance to allow participants to consider what and how they will respond; and 3) describe benefits of dialogue with researchers and growers regarding needs; barriers to adoption, etc. in our correspondence with MD product manufacturers.

Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for this project was US specialty crops growers, regional commodity group, extension educators, mating disruption manufacturers and distributors. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?This work led to the training in meeting planning for the staff involved in this project. No other training or professional development occurred during this planning grant. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Objective 1. We established the first national research and extension community of practice focused on mating disruption (MD). The group included scientists, stakeholders, extension personnel, and distributors of MD products and engaged MD product manufacturers. We met via zoom calls to plan our activities and brainstorm about the future of MD in specialty crops on a regular basis and this effort used to develop three surveys. A meeting was organized in Chicago by the PD and the staff person at theHyatt Place O'Hare Airporton December 11-13, 2022. The meeting followed the agenda below. -------------------- Draft Planning Meeting Agenda Project Title: Killing them softly: defining the future of insect mating disruption in specialty crops Location: Hyatt Place O'Hare Airport, 6810 Mannheim Rd, Rosemont, Illinois DAY 1: Monday, December 12, 2022 - TIME ZONE is CST 7:30 AM Breakfast(free hotel breakfast) 8:30 AM Welcome, Introduction, Timeline, Objectives- Christelle Guédot (UW-Madison) Round-Robin introduction of all participants 9:00 AM Summary of survey results- Neil McRoberts (UC-Davis) 9:30 AM Moderated Panel 1: Specialty crops commodity representatives(hybrid) Panelists:Teah Smith (WA), Amy Irish-Brown (MI), Jeff Cook (GA, virtually), Jim Eve (NY, virtually) Moderator: Julianna Wilson Question 1.From a grower point of view, what are the barriers to adoption? Question 2.From a grower point of view, what do you see as priorities to improve adoption? 10:30 AM Coffee Break 11:00 AM Moderated Panel 2: Semiochemical company representatives(virtual panel discussion)Panelists:Peter McGhee (Pacific Biocontrol/ShinEtsu), Emily Symmes (Suterra) Moderator:Christelle Guédot Question 1.From an industry point of view, what are the barriers to increase adoption? Question 2.What do you see as solutions to these barriers? 12:00 PM Lunch 1:00 PM Intro to afternoon -Christelle Organize working groups from tentative Objectives Breakout groups: TBD based upon group discussion and priorities lists; discuss status of research in each area and identify research activities to address critical needs Objective 1.sociology/economics/regulatory effects on grower adoption (public goods and context of adoption) - how to integrate- moderators: Neil, Gigi, Matt What extension activities would stem from this objective? Objective 2.integrating MD into existing practices/IPM, methodology improvement -moderators: Anne, Brett, How would socio-economic aspects be integrated into this objective? What extension activities would stem from this objective? Objective 3.synergistic effects of MD and plant volatiles, mechanisms, developing new MD products, improving performance of existing MD products -moderators: Juan, Lukasz, Monique How would socio-economic aspects be integrated into this objective? What extension activities would stem from this objective? Objective 4.landscape context, crop system scale/complexity -moderators: Julianna, Tracy How would socio-economic aspects be integrated into this objective? What extension activities would stem from this objective? Note: Extension/student training will constitute objective 5 in the CAP proposal and is integrated in objectives 1-4. 3:00 PM Coffee Break 3:15 PM Continue Breakout groups 4:00 PM Group discussion Identify research priorities from survey and discussions, summarizing into 5 key items per objective (keeping all the notes) Individual ranking of priorities -Neil 5:00 PM Conclude Day 1- Christelle Guédot (UW-Madison) 7:00 PM Group Dinner DAY 2: Tuesday, December 13, 2022 7:30 AM Breakfast(free hotel breakfast) 8:30 AM Summary of ranked priorities- Neil Group discussion - a)Response to summary b)Finalize the objectives of a full SCRI CAP grant c)Identify objective leads for the SCRI CAP and schedule follow up meetings 10:00 AM Coffee break 10:30 AM Continue group discussion 12:00 PM Lunch 1:00 PM Group discussion Plan the preparation of a peer reviewed manuscript to summarize the outcome of the survey and planning meeting and delegate writing assignments. Proposal timeline, request for letters of support, identify Stakeholder Advisory Panel members (SAP roles: feedback at all meetings, methods, extension activities) c)Identify date and time for weekly zoom meetings to develop Stakeholder Relevance Statement (due date January 12, 2023), followed by CAP proposal 4:00 PM Closing remarks- Christelle Guédot (UW-Madison) ------------------- During the planning meeting, the teambrainstormed the objectives that would be developed in the SCRI CAP grant proposal. PIs, PDs, and SAP members were identified. Objective 2. Three surveys were conducted to determine the successful uses and barriers to adoption of MD in specialty crops. One survey was distributed to specialty crop growers to assess use and barriers to adoption, the other survey went to extension specialists who work withspecialty crop growers to assess their interest and ability torecommend and provide support on the use of MD, and finally the third survey was distributed to MD manufacturers to assess the future of MD product development. Results of the survey were presented to the meeting attendees. Objective 3. Following the planning meeting and using the outcomes of that meeting, the teamworked on and submitted an SRS proposal for an SCRI CAP for the 2023 funding cycle.

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