Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
rated with researchers in the pear and apple growing regions of
Washington, Oregon, and California. In 1994 and under the leadership
of the Clinton administration, the USDA created a funding program to
support area-wide IPM initiatives. Based on the promising results of the
Randall Island Project and other preliminary efforts, the USDA selected
the codling moth area-wide program (CAMP) for 5 years of funding.
The project began on 2,630 acres, but with grower demand it expanded
to 20,750 acres by the end, with 17 sites of at least 160 acres in four
western states. CAMP provided technical support and shared costs of the
pheromones. In 2001, about half of the pome fruit in the Pacific states
was under mating disruption. Organophosphate applications during the
CAMP program dropped by 80 percent. Thanks in large part to CAMP,
pheromone mating disruption is now practiced on 100,000 acres in
Washington.
2
Funding at the right time, for the right technologies—and
supported by social learning processes—can make astounding environ-
mental progress in agriculture.
Ecorational technologies fail without a social learning network to sup-
port them. Pheromone mating disruption is knowledge-intensive because
the grower—or more likely, PCA—has to be able to monitor pest popu-
lations and the impact of pheromone technologies. Those monitoring
mating disruption must be able to do the following:
identify the biofix (initial date of mating and accumulating degree-days)
and anticipate when the first generation of adults will mate so as to dis-
rupt them
interpret pest population dynamics across time and orchard space from
counting trapped insects at single points and returning as frequently as
once a day during critical summer periods
monitor the impact of disrupting the first generation on the second gen-
eration when they hatch, roughly 1,000 degree-days later (2 or 3
months), and determine if a supplemental pesticide is needed to kill lar-
vae of the third generation
ensure that pheromones have disrupted the vulnerable spaces in the
orchard by inspecting for fruit damage along edges and high in trees
verify the consistent performance of monitoring traps by visual inspec-
tion of the orchard to ensure they are not reporting “false negatives”
repeat monitoring the impact of any pre-harvest pesticide applications
and predict the potential need for a pesticide application post-harvest or
early spring to reduce codling moth population the following March, 7
months later.
