Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO AT MAYAGUEZ
P. O. BOX 9000
MAYAGUEZ,PR 00681
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
This project will continue enhancing collaboration between Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands to address the needs of smallholder farmers. In the Islands, crop production is affected by extreme weather events and pest outbreaks.Farmers are subject to the volatility of weather conditions affecting their farms and threatening food production and availability.In our Islands the entry of exotic pests is devastating our crops and threatening food security. Local vegetable,root crops and plantain and banana production does not meet local demand due to pests and lack of effective pest management practices. New emerging invasive pests, Thrips parvispinus, and Amrasca biguttula detected recently in PR & USVI, pose a threat to ornamental and vegetable crops. Most farmers don't know about this pests and how theywill affect their crops. Disadvantaged plantain and banana farmers expressed their concerns in meetings with Extension personnel about scarce labor force, increased costs on chemicals and protection measures to maintain plant health in Black sigatoka, an emerging disease affecting production. Inside high tunnel vegetable production farmers experience high pest pressure, and temperatures that surpassed most maximum crop development ranges. In Puerto Rico there is scarce data on microclimatic conditions on High Tunnels and around 65% of the structures are not in use due to production problems and the absence of an IPM plan to manage pests.The IPM team in PR & UVI will make use of surveys, trainings, workshops, field days and farm demonstrations to transfer pest management information to growers/farmers. This information will be available on a website to inform them of current pests' status. An educational video will show high tunnel producers the correct design and construction with the goal of minimizing conditions that promote pests and diseases. The main aspects that will be covered in trainings and workshops are: identification of key pests, pest monitoring/scouting, available management practices, importance of soil and tissue analysis, pesticide calibration, rotation and safety during applications, protection of pollinators and natural enemies and farm biosecurity. Other planned activities include presentations at producer meetings and promotion of communication through updating of the IPM webpage.Extension training for new farmers, outreach programs, materials development (Extension bulletins, pocket guides, posters and presentations) and delivery, along with regularly scheduled visitation aim to help increase adoption of IPM practices for vegetables (conventional and in high tunnels), plantain and banana and tanier. Quarterly visitations to farms will be scheduled to see current practices and discuss adoption phase of new practices; document commitments to implementation and create the draft of the "4-D Farming" Extension Bulletin. Once participants are chosen, we will begin evaluation of impact across 5 areas for each farmer.The use of pre and posttests will help us evaluate the impact of the educational activities.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
The overall goals of IPM for PR and USVI are to improve cost-benefit analyses when adopting IPM practices and reduce potential human health risks from pests and related management strategies.Priority Area - Specialty Crops: Distribution and IPM of Thrips parvispinus a new invasive pest in Puerto Rico. 1) Conduct a thrip survey on farms with T. parvispinus hosts as the main crop. The hosts include, but are not limited to peppers, sweet peppers, papaya, and watermelon. 2) Conduct a thrip survey at nurseries and nurseries of growers that distribute and retail ornamentals plants, with special emphasis on distributors that import ornamentals from Florida. Train and assist farmers, Agricultural Agents, and other stakeholders on how to monitor thrips, best management practices in their crops, and IPM implementation. Priority Area: Specialty Crops - Implementation of IPM in Tropical High Tunnels in Puerto Rico- 1) An IRB approved questionnaire will be designed, to measure the level of IPM implementation and willingness on HTs in Puerto Rico, 2) Establishment of preventative, cultural, and biological IPM practices on a demosntrative high tunnel for farmer training.3Priority Area: IPM Implementation in Specialty Crops: Vegetable Crops -increase adoption of IPM practices in specialty vegetable crops. Commonly grown on the territorial islands. We will focus on four families, Solanaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Brassicaceae, and Amaranthaceae, and strive for Food Security and Farm Stewardship. Extension training for new farmers, outreach programs, materials development (Extension bulletins, pocket guides, posters and presentations) and delivery, along with regularly scheduled visitation aim to help increase adoption of IPM practices for vegetable production farmers.Priority Area: Specialty Crops - Root Crops: Integrated Management of Tanier Diseases -1) Develop knowledge about how viral, fungal, and bacterial diseases limit tanier production in Puerto Rico.Priority Area: Specialty Crops: Smart Monitoring and Management of Black Sigatoka -1) Conduct a survey among plantain farmers to assess black sigatoka management practices used by them. Use UAV multispectral imagery to monitor BS incidence in banana and plantain municipalities with emphasis on the Añasco Valley,Priority area: IPM for Pest Diagnostic Facilities-1) Train vegetable farmers of the Southern municipalities of Puerto Rico on how to conduct proper monitoring of pests, how to interpret the label and importance of pesticide rotation and how to understand all components interacting to promote pests and diseases, 2)Disseminate IPM and biosecurity practices to avoid the entry of new emerging pests.
Project Methods
Surveys in vegetable & ornamental's farms/nurseries to assess Thrips parvispinus (PR) and Amrasca biguttulapopulations, in plantain to assess Black Sigatoka distribution, in tanier to assess key diseases and IPM use by farmers. Farmers trainingand hosting a pilot project for farmers on an established/successful VI farm, meetings with Extension Agents to identify farms with pest and disease problems, Meetings with farmers and farmers'associations, Field days/tours to farms to diagnose pests and diseases and identify best practices. Instructional factsheets and educational sessions about monitoring, correct identification, pest monitoring, all about pesticides, safety and biosecurity. Reports with IPM recommendations and dissemination ofbiosafety practices among farmers to avoid the entry of exotic pests.Individual reports from all priority areas will be collected and aggregated for progress and continuation reporting purposes. Questionnaires to evaluate level of IPM implementation of farmers will be delivered in three priority areas and outcomes will be evaluated towards the end of theproject administering the same questionnaire to assess IPM implementation of farmers after receiving education. Short term outcomes will be evaluated in all areas by the use of pre- and post-tests in field days and trainings. In the priority area, IPM of Thrips parvispinus a new invasive pests and critical issue will be addressed using a short evaluation instrument that will be delivered to farmers during the first year and again at the end of the project to measure farmers' IPM adoption of suggested management practices. In the Pest Diagnostic Facilities and IPM Implementation of Specialty Crops: Plantain and Banana: Smart Monitoring and Management of Black Sigatoka priority area, a retrospective post-then-pre questionnaire will be designed and administered to evaluate changes in knowledge, awareness and skills developed. The Southern IPM Center collaborate in the development of evaluation workshops for improved collaborative project impact evaluation and for the formation of a climate change focus group to gather results based on stakeholder perspectives. In UVI, the IPM Specialist will evaluate change, farm outcomes, and impact each year over 5 areas: 1) increase in production and sales, 2) percent adoption of new practices; 3) combination of creative farming inputs; 4) participants evaluate training sessions with an evaluation rating (1-5); and 5)record limitations and successes. A form will be created in Excel that includes the 5 evaluation areas that will be documented.