Recipient Organization
OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
1680 MADISON AVENUE
WOOSTER,OH 44691
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The Ohio Extension Implementation Program for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) will be led by Dr. Logan Minter (Ohio IPM coordinator), as appointed by Extension Director, David Civittolo (Administrative contact). This project encourages innovative collaboration between Departments of Extension, Entomology, Horticulture and Crop Science, Plant Pathology, and History at the Ohio State University and Central State University Extension to meet diverse stakeholder needs. We have assembled a balanced, priority-based program to provide a mix of traditional educational activities (conferences, workshops, field days) combined with technology (3-D printed models, websites, webinars, and instructional videos) to amplify impacts.We will conduct programs in Agronomic and/or Specialty Crops, with the goal of IPM implementation and adoption in field crops, mixed produce production by urban and plain community growers, and emerging specialty crops (paw paw and culinary mushrooms), while increasing awareness and monitoring fore invasive, traditional, and emerging pests. Public Health will deliver IPM training related to identification and management of bed bugs in inhabited structures as well as mosquitoes and ticks in urban and recreational spaces throughout the state. Our Pollinator Health focus will develop educational resources surrounding trees beneficial for pollinators and phenology forecasting for pests. The Pest Diagnostic Facilities are cornerstone to IPM by identifying pests and offering recommendations to a variety of stakeholders. Project coordination and evaluation will support all priorities to measure knowledge gain, practice adoption, and progress toward ultimate goals of increased plant protection, food security, and sustainability through environmentally, economically, and socially responsible pest management practices.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
0%
Applied
100%
Developmental
0%
Goals / Objectives
In 2023, the State of Ohio revived the tagline of years past, "Ohio, The Heart of it All" as it's official brand. Beyond alluding to central location in the U.S. heartland, and broad appeal for diverse tourism, Ohio is comprised of distinct physiographic regions representing a confluence of the Appalachian foothills, bluegrass lowlands, Great Lakes basin, and central till plains. Beyond geography, Ohio's 11.8million people living in a mix of major metropolitan centers, urban/suburban areas, and rural communities represent an enormously diverse constituency. As such, Ohio's agriculture and food production sector reflects such diversity as one of the largest economic engines adding over $100B to the economy annually andaccounts for 14% of the workforce. Therefore, production agriculture will be represented heavily in two priority areas, Agronomic/Specialty Crops and support of the Diagnostic Clinic. The Pollinator Health and Public Health priorities will serve not only the production agriculture sector through crop enhancement and worker protections, but also extend societal benefits to diverse communities of Ohio and beyond through increased public safety and conservation of ecological resources. The broad scope of our program aligns with the goals of CPPM as our individual projects will develop plant protection tools and tactics, enhance diversified IPM systems, increase agriculture biosecurity and develop tactics for sustainable communities.Progress towards these goals will create a solid framework to support the National IPM road map goals of improving economics and human health and reducing environmental risks through adoption of IPM strategies. Our educational events and tangible outputs will apply a holistic and transdisciplinary approach to address high priority issues related to the management of pests including insects, nematodes, pathogens, and weeds, enhancing and conserving habitat for beneficial organisms, and interactions between these factors, the environment, and society.The same geographic diversity which supports Ohio's varied agriculture also leaves it susceptible to extreme fluctuations in climate. Projections of Ohio's climate over the next 10-30 years feature an expected mean temperature rise of 3-5°F, extending the growing season up to 20 additional days while experiencing milder winters. Therefore, implications of this reality which is intertwined with pest management will be incorporated throughout project efforts. Another impending reality facing Ohio IPM practitioners are complexities related to the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Endangered Species Act (ESA). The North Central IPM (NCIPM)Center is currently conducting a needs assessment to identify educational needs for farmers and other agricultural communities (letter appended). Outcomes from this assessment will shape subsequent steps, with collaborative efforts involving several other NCIPM programs regarding the scope and form of education among stakeholders. The Ohio EIP will incorporate updates to educational efforts as appropriate and timely.Overall, the Ohio EIP will strategically engage with diverse stakeholders and community partners within the state and beyond to deliver traditional and pedagogical innovative resources and training, yielding the highest sustainable impact possible from project inputs.
Project Methods
Overall, project leadership includes technical expertise in management of pest arthropods, pathogens, and weeds, natural resource conservation, and social sciences. A heavy presence of Extension Field Specialists and Educators implicitly increases the cross and transdisciplinary scope of this project and supplies pedagogical capability to reach diverse audiences in novel ways.Collaboration and Information Dissemination: At OSU, we have a culture of leveraging Extension based teams and other organizations to multiply the outreach efforts of our IPM program as we interact with stakeholders. Currently we have key collaborators represented on the Fruit and Vegetable Team, Buckeye Environmental Horticulture Team, Agronomy Team, Pesticide Safety Education Program, as well as external commodity associations and grower associations. These entities help us multiply our message and programming efforts with the multitude of stakeholders through team-based teaching, publications, websites and newsletters. Many IPM program team members are also extensively involved at the regional level with program planning and delivery, facilitating the exchange of information and ideas to stakeholders across the region in a coordinated and efficient manner. Regional organizations that our IPM program team members collaborate with includes the North Central Extension Entomologists Working Group, North Central Virtual Crop Scout School, Great Lakes Vegetable Working Group, North Central IPM Great Lakes Urban Agriculture Working Group, North Central IPM Center, GROW network, and the National Plant Diagnostic Network. Ohio also participates in editing and updating the regional Midwest Vegetable Production Guide. Three letters of regional support can be found in the Appendix.Program Evaluation: Objective evaluation of all program activities and outputs will be conducted in all four project areas. For participatory educational events, end of program surveys developed in consultation with the OSU Extension evaluation specialist and alignment with the CPPM programmatic logic model will be utilized to measure 1) short-term knowledge gained from the program (identification, monitoring, management, etc.) and 2) medium-term outcomes showing behavior change or intention to increase IPM practice adoption. While long-term adoption/ changes such as effective, affordable and environmentally sound IPM strategies to reduce pests may not be measurable within the timeline of this project period, progress and attitude changes will advance toward those goals.All program evaluations will be thoroughly vetted by the evaluation specialist and housed in OSU's online Qualtrics survey site.