Office of National Programs
AREAWIDE PEST MANAGEMENT
In 1993, USDA’s Agricultural Research Service in concert with a USDA IPM Working Group, developed a partnership framework for an Areawide Pest Management (AWPM) initiative that would include the federal, state, and private sectors as partners. On September 27, 1993, key pest management representatives from the USDA, university research and extension, and several state Departments of Agriculture participated in an organizational meeting in Beltsville, Maryland. At this meeting, participants identified key pests and cropping systems for which environmentally sound pest management technologies were available for implementation on an area-wide basis. The following year, Congress allocated funding that would support projects through the AWPM program, which has recently been in jeopardy.
Research at ARS has advanced the AWPM approach and resulted in: 1) innovations in advanced pest monitoring; 2) the use of predictive models to target vulnerable pest life stages; 3) new spray technologies to reduce off-target drift; 4) new planting systems; 5) population-suppression strategies such as mating disruption; 6) the use of disease resistant cultivars; 7) advances in scientific knowledge of pest and host biology and ecology; and 8) the use of biological controls, biopesticides, and biotechnology.
Invasive insects, weeds, and diseases result in economic losses and management costs totaling more than $63 billion annually in the United States and invasive pathogens and pests might become the first trillion-dollar threat to agriculture and natural lands. To counter these threats, the most reliable and sustainable approach is IPM. When implemented, particularly at regional scales, areawide IPM plays a major role in protecting not only the environment, but human health. ARS partnerships with APHIS, NIFA, and other federal departments are contributing to new knowledge on IPM through basic and applied research, which is resulting in improved areawide IPM practices implemented across vast acreages.
