Oct 25, 2023Grant to fund study of sustainable pest management in California
A $1 million California Department of Food & Agriculture grant will be used to study sustainable pest management by charting the decisions of 200 of the state’s pest control advisors.
The grant, announced by CAPCA, the California Association of Pest Control Advisers, will focus on data collection surrounding the decision-making process of 200 PCAs and their use of Integrated Pest Management and SPM in the field. The official title of the grant is Assessing SPM Adoption, Decisions, and Resources in California Cropping Systems.
This data will be used by CAPCA, CDFA, and the University of California Integrated Pest Management Department (UC IPM) to better inform continuing education, according to a news release. Data collection will be anonymous and only detail the crop, commodity and county. The study will focus on a narrow but diverse set of crops, including grapes, lettuce, pistachios and tomatoes.
The Pest Control Adviser (PCA) selection process will begin in January 2024.
Those PCAs chosen to participate in the grant study will use a special and private version of Telus Agronomy’s (formerly Agrian) Record Keeping Suite. The grant incentivizes PCAs through financial stipends for successful program completion, including a yearlong account upgrade through Telus Agronomy. Any resulting online continuing education will be given to participating PCAs.
“For many years, CAPCA has witnessed the decision-making process of our regulators and legislators in Sacramento centered around SPM,” Ruthann Anderson, president and CEO of CAPCA, said in the release. “This grant will allow the PCA industry to provide data-driven information surrounding the ongoing and long-standing practice of IPM and SPM in the field.”
