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Pest Management Alternatives RFA released

The Request for Applications for USDA-NIFA’s Pest Management Alternatives Program has been released.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The RFA, released March 1, includes a submission deadline of April 1, 2013.

Find more at NIFA’s Pest Management Alternatives web page

Advice for Grant Writers: IPM Enhancement Grants

April 1 is the submission deadline for the  IPM Enhancement Grants Request for Applications released last week. Here is some general advice for those  preparing proposals:

  1. Follow the RFA closely in constructing your proposal. Make it easy on the reviewers (who are reviewing and comparing many proposals) to follow along, to find everything required, and to find those things in expected places.
  2. Address all of the scoring criteria shown on worksheet in the back of the RFA. These criteria vary somewhat for each project type. For a Capstone project, for instance:
    • Resource building, etc. (builds on what you’ve already done)
    • Regional importance (How many states, farms, acres, people could be positively impacted? Have stakeholders identified this issue as a priority?)
    • Potential for success
    • Impact evaluation (see #4 below)
    • Proposal prep (see #1)
    • Budget
  3. This year the RFA has “special priorities”. If your project fits one of them, then use it. Even if your project isn’t t chosen to address one of the priorities, it will still be in the competition with all other proposals for the other half (nearly) of available funding.
  4. Look closely at the Impact evaluation requirement. In addition to the traditional “plan to measure project outcomes and impacts of this project”, you have the option of broadly contributing to the status of impact data in this field. For instance, maybe the project could include a survey of targeted stakeholders for their current practices or understanding of pest ID, providing baseline data that goes beyond your own project? (More to come in a future post on this.)

I hope this helps. Feel free to contact me if you have other questions.

Jim VanKirk, Director SIPMC

New Extension priorities survey to be sent early November

The Southern IPM Center is about to undertake a regional survey to define priorities for extension IPM projects in the region. The Center can support relatively few projects each year, so for the first time we are trying this approach to help ensure that our limited resources are applied to the most important projects.

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Mississippi State IPM Blog Lands Extension Team a Regional Award

Coffee senna hasn’t hit the national farm news yet as the latest “worst weed,” but on July 26—the same day that the members of the team that maintains the Mississippi Crop Situation Blog were receiving an award for their outreach—coffee senna was receiving special attention as well: it was the “Weed of the Week” on the Mississippi blog.

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What IS Integrated Pest Management anyway? And what does it do for you?

I never know who looks at our blog–whether they’re a specialist or a homeowner, and whether or not they even know what integrated pest management is. This post is dedicated to those of you who have come here and don’t know what integrated pest management is. The rest of you can have the day off–or have fun reading.

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See you next week at the IPM Symposium!

As the time drawn near for the 7th International IPM Symposium, I thought it only fitting to post some last minute information for those of you who may not have gotten an e-mail.

http://www.ipmcenters.org/ipmsymposium12/

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Biological Control Deconstructed, Part 3

If biocontrol has so many advantages, why do some people shudder at the mention of a new introduction of an insect or parasitoid that may save a crop or forest tree from certain destruction? Simple. Any time that any living organism is set free in a foreign habitat, that organism presents its own risks.

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New Study on Bedbugs and Bacteria: What has it found?

Last week, news about a new study on bed bugs flooded the media. The study seemed to dispute the theory that bed bugs, unlike other blood-sucking insects like mosquitoes and ticks, do not transmit disease. Based on results from a poverty-stricken community in Vancouver, British Columbia, the study concludes that in certain circumstances, bedbugs may have the potential to transmit bacteria.

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2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is on fire!.

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Welcome to IPM in the South

Welcome to our blog on IPM in the South. IPM, or integrated pest management, is socially acceptable, environmentally responsible and economically practical crop protection. In the past few years, even urbanites have the opportunity to use or experience IPM. Many school maintenance personnel are lowering their use of broad-spectrum pesticides in schools. Some homeowners keep pests out of their homes  by using preventative methods like doorsweeps. If you’ve used a fly swatter, you’ve used IPM. IPM involves using the right tool for the right pest at the right time.

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