Farmers walk a fine line when battling crop diseases, having to choose when it is most economically favorable to tackle a disease with costly inputs such as fungicides.
The Crop Protection Network, which is supported in part by USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), has created a suite of tools to help crop producers evaluate the potential economic benefit of fungicide applications to crops, including corn, soybeans and alfalfa.
Drawing on data from multiyear, university-conducted fungicide research trials across the U.S. and Canada, these Return on Investment (ROI) Calculators estimate net benefits and breakeven probabilities based on user inputs such as treatment cost, disease severity and expected commodity prices.
The Crop Protection Network is a multistate and international collaboration of university scientists, Extension specialists and other professionals that provide unbiased, research-based information to farmers and agricultural personnel.
The Crop Protection Network, its ROI calculators and its other resources for farmers are funded, in part, through NIFA’s Crop Protection and Pest Management Program (CPPM), specifically, CPPM’s Regional Coordination Program (RCP). RCP funds projects to increase coordination and improve efficiency of integrated pest management (IPM) research and Extension efforts, facilitate collaboration and promote development and adoption of IPM.
RCP is one of three program areas in CPPM. The Applied Research and Development Program Area funds research to create new ways to manage pests, including new strategies and technologies. The final area, the Extension Implementation Program Area, funds projects that help farmers and producers use the new IPM practices developed from the research.
“Together the three program areas support projects that reinforce a comprehensive approach for developing IPM tools and strategies and implementing that knowledge to support America’s famers and producers,” said NIFA National Program Leader Dr. Emmanuel Byamukama. “CPPM projects increase food security and provide IPM approaches that are economically viable and safe for human health.