Impact of the NYS IPM Program’s Network for Environment & Weather Awareness (NEWA) on agricultural production

Abstract

The impact of the Network for Environment & Weather Awareness (NEWA) on pest and crop management was evaluated via a survey conducted by The Survey Research Institute (SRI), Cornell University . The phone survey was completed with 682 people, including 129 NEWA users and 553 non-users. Twenty-four questions were developed to ascertain the impact of NEWA. NEWA users reported that they can save, on average, $19,500 per year in spray costs and prevent, on average, $264,000 per year in crop loss as a direct result of using NEWA pest forecast models. Temperature, precipitation and weather forecasts were the most important weather information. NEWA users primarily seek weather data. They suggested more instructions on how to use NEWA information to make it easier to access and interpret. Putting more weather stations in the network was most frequently selected for how to improve NEWA. 99.2% of NEWA users would recommend NEWA to farmers.