Development of IPM Elements for Key Crops in New York State
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) methods balance economic, environmental, and human health issues in pest management decision-making. This balance is achieved by careful consideration and implementation of all appropriate pest management options. IPM methods are developed to insure the delivery of high-quality agricultural products, maximize the effectiveness of all pest-control techniques and minimize adverse environmental effects. Since managing pests is a dynamic process influenced by weather, markets, new knowledge, and other information, the best way to define it appears to be through a set of elements. The NYS IPM Program has developed IPM Elements for a number of vegetable and fruit crops in response to stakeholders. These have been posted to the NYS IPM Website at: (www.nysipm.cornell.edu/elements/index.html). Elements are typically derived through a partnership process of appropriate stakeholders such as agricultural producers, food processing companies, supermarkets and Cornell University research and extension staff. Once developed IPM elements for a given crop may change over time as new knowledge and new perspectives become available. The current project describes the development of new and revised* IPM Elements for: 10 NYS crops including: Apple*, Grapes-Juice*, Alfalfa (New Stands and Established Stands), Field Corn, Dairy Cattle (Summer-Confined and Summer-Pasture), Wheat (Winter), Soybean, Greenhouse, Onions*, and Potatoes*.