This is a draft document only, meant to facilitate discussion and eventual production of a final document
A National Road Map for Pest Management
2002 — 2010
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
Vision: Wide scale adoption of integrated pest management (IPM) will result in more economically viable, environmentally compatible, socially responsible, and sustainable crop production systems for the United States by 2010.
Mission: The pest management mission of USDA and its partners is to improve farm profitability and safeguard human health and the environment through discovery, development, extension and verification of safer, more effective, and more economical pest management systems. Action items to address specific research, implementation, and assessment goals will be established on a regional basis and be guided by both public and private stakeholder input.
Impact Areas:
Area 1. Pest management for plant and animal systems: This area is intended to include pest management for plant species grown for commercial purposes, including production, transportation, storage, and processing, and management of arthropod pests attendant to animal production systems.
Area 2. Pest management for recreational, right-of-way and natural resource environments: This area includes both public and private outdoor areas used for recreation, transportation and utility rights-of-way, forestland, rangelands, and aquatic habitats.
Area 3. Pest management for residential and institutional facilities: This area includes facilities such as homes, schools, health care facilities, government structures, public and private offices, manufacturing facilities, and attendant landscapes.
Research priorities:
Elucidate pest biology and host/pest/climate interactions to identify system vulnerabilities and potential advanced management tactic development, particularly those tactics related to prevention and avoidance strategies.
Develop high resolution, economical, environmental and biological monitoring systems to enhance the capability for pest incidence prediction, damage estimates, and action thresholds
Improve the efficiency of suppression tactics and demonstrate least cost options and pest management alternatives, including organic practices.
Develop new generation suppression tactics and delivery methods designed to expand the options for pest management systems.
Develop and implement landscape-scale pest management programs to supplement more specific field-level programs.
Implementation Priorities:
Insure bi-directional continuum of pest management information flow by development of collaborative relationships with public and private sector cooperators.
Develop incentives for new pest management program adoption by users based on value to the general public and grower risk assumption.
Provide educational opportunities for pest management specialists to learn new skills, for example, how to engage new and unique audiences, including specific language, location, strategy, or other special needs of the audience.
Create public awareness and understanding of pest management programs through creative use of mass media, for example, flagship development and public service advertising.
Leverage federal resources with state and local public and private sources in an interactive process to accomplish joint implementation projects.
Where feasible, shift pest management program emphasis from individual based implementation efforts to community-based approaches.
Measurement Goals:
Develop baseline data at the beginning of new programs in order to accommodate measurements over the continuum of the project.
Create specific metrics with a relevant timeframe for measurement of accomplishments at the beginning of new projects.
Provide templates and example documents as potential measurement tools to illustrate and serve as guidelines for programs and projects.
Engage entities with measurement expertise early in program and project development.