Project Highlights

FUNDED PROJECT REPORT

Northwest Group Spearheads First Pest Management Strategic Plan for an Organic Crop

A Pest Management Strategic Plan for Organic Potato Production

Coordinator: Jennifer Miller, Northwest Coalition for Alternativest to Pesticides, Boise, ID
Stakeholder locations: California, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon and Washington
Project period: 2008-2009

The organic movement continues to achieve new milestones. This past year the first Pest Management Strategic Plan (PMSP) for an organic crop was created for organic potato production in the West, creating the first organic PMSP and paving the way for similar plans for other organic crops.

The Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP) spearheaded the plan, with OFRF grant support.

NCAP's Jennifer Miller discussed her motivation for the project. "One of our goals is to make Idaho known as the organic potato state. Part of that is helping to get resources in place for farmers and that includes getting more research. But this isn’t just about Idaho--a lot of potatoes are grown in the West and that’s why we worked with other states as well."

USDA’s Office of Pest Management Policy facilitates development of PMSPs, which address pest management needs by state or region for individual commodities. PMSPs help to identify research, education and regulatory needs for a particular crop and region. More than 100 such plans are in place for conventional production practices. Final plans for all crops are posted on USDA's National IPM Information Center website.

The three year planning process for an organic potato PMSP included input from 40 workgroup members in five states -- California, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

At the first planning session in February 2006, participants determined that the traditional approach to PMSP development—in which pests are treated once they are present—would not be relevant to organic cropping systems.

"When we initially gathered there were several researchers who worked on potatoes but not organic, so it was a challenge to get them to look at a preventative approach to pest management vs. the rescue approach," says Miller. "These researchers knew something about biological approaches but didn’t have the tendency to use them."

More time and a comprehensive, systems approach was needed. With OFRF support, the process reconvened in early 2008 and NCAP developed an integrated approach, gathering input from organic potato farmers, researchers, agronomists, regulators, and other technical experts.

The Pest Management Strategic Plan for Organic Potato Production in the West was published on USDA’s website in December 2008. With completion of the first PMSP for an organic crop, a template is now available for developing additional strategic plans for other organic crops. The organic potato PMSP differs from other PMSPs in that it focuses on preventative methods such as crop rotation, avoidance, sanitation, variety selection and cover crops as the foundation for pest management. These changes help to make the process and resulting document better fit an organic cropping system.

Miller has some tips for others who want to develop an organic PMSP. "You really need to start with farmers and the researchers that want to do this. And secondly, you need to put in a lot of thought into the process for gathering the information, because the USDA process—well, it differs region by region—but our region in particular had focused on that rescue style which really doesn’t fit for organic."

"That’s why we think the template will be helpful for people," Miller adds.

More time is needed to determine the impact the PMSP will have on organic potato production research and educational programming for farmers. But to date, ten researchers and extension specialists have used the pest management strategic plan to develop research programs, document stakeholder need in grant proposals, and/or shared the document with others. The strategic plan has been used to secure funding for seven projects of significance to organic potato farmers, including a two million dollar project on potato pests. Decisions on two proposals are currently pending. Two researchers and extension specialists also reported that while they had not yet used the document, they expected to in the future.

The Pest Management Strategic Plan for Organic Potato Production in the West can be downloaded from the USDA National IPM Information Center http://www.ipmcenters.org/pmsp/

A final report describing the results of this project was submitted in June 2009. A copy of Jennifer Miller's complete project report which details the PMSP development process is downloadable here: miller_07f20.pdf