Access to pest management information tools is one of the keys to profitability and the environmental soundness of decision made by rural farmers in the United States.  Agriculture is very complex and requires the knowledge of a multitude of components for effective decision making and too often farmers lack access to critical information that is needed to make informed decisions.  Communication technologies that are now available can improve access of United States farmers with the specific, timely information they need to make sound decisions.  The timely delivery of site specific production information through computer-based technologies will give United States farmers a competitive edge while reducing the impact of farming on the environment.  This project intends to demonstrate that corn and apple farmers alike, require and benefit from site-specific, timely information delivered by new technologies.

This project proposes that a group of apple farmers from Pennsylvania and New England and a group of corn farmers from Pennsylvania and Iowa cooperate with university personnel to determine how weather information tools and computer based decision support tools, such as pest predictive models and expert systems, can be made more accessible for day-to-day decision making.

Project Objectives

	Involve farmers and crop management professionals in the development of appropriate delivery methods for new pest management decision support tools.
	Evaluate the usefulness, reliability, and acceptance of weather information sources for use in pest predictive models and the MAIZE and PSAOC expert systems.
	Evaluate linking pest management tools such as predictive pest models, site-specific weather information sources and expert systems with the NII and evaluate their impact on decision making by commercial farmers.

Approaches Being Taken

The tools for informed insect and disease management exist but they have not been easily accessible to farmers and crop management professionals.  This lack of accessibility is due to several factors:

	Many farmers and crop professionals are unaware of their existence
	Training is required for their proper use
	Access to a computer is required
	Elements of each system may require restructuring to fit farmer needs

The first step in the project will be to establish a group of farmers from the participating states that will serve as evaluators of the current expert systems and pest development models. This group will be identified as the Executive Farmer Committee (EFC), and will work with university specialist to design an information access protocol that will meet their needs. Once the system is designed and on-line, farmers other than the EFC will be involved in evaluating the effectiveness of the information delivery methods.

Cooperators

Penn State University
	James W. Travis, Primary Director, Department of Plant Pathology
	Dennis D. Calvin, Co-Director, Department of Entomology
	Edwin G. Rajotte, Department of Entomology
	Robert M. Crassweller, Department of Horticulture
	Carole B. Backman, Web Page Development

University of Vermont
	Lorraine P. Berkett, Co-Director, Department of Plant Pathology

Iowa State University
	Jon Tollefson, Department of Entomology

Private Business
	Joseph M. Russo, ZedX Inc., Private Business