Location: Innovative Fruit Production, Improvement, and Protection
Project Number: 8080-21000-032-057-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2024
End Date: Aug 31, 2028
Objective:
The primary goal for this project is to provide Eastern tree fruit growers with climate-smart, risk-based enhanced integrated pest management (IPM) tools to improve overall profitability and ecological resilience for their operations.
Approach:
ARS will achieve the goal of this proposal through the following approaches: 1) Measure phenological shifts of key pests and evaluate reliability of available monitoring tools and models; 2) Refine IPM tools to ensure compatibility with evolving production practices, regulatory changes, and climate; 3) Suppress pest populations across orchard agroecosystems with promising biocontrol agents and integrate improved IPM tactics; and 4) Assess the socioeconomic impact of enhanced IPM programs to promote grower adoption and market flexibility.
