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Pesticide residues on food crops increasingly mean that farmers in developing countries can’t sell their produce to lucrative foreign markets—and the pesticides themselves pose health risks to those who use them, often children and women. Recent research has also shown that pesticides can actually decrease crop yields over time.
People in developing countries around the world are learning to enhance food security, minimize pesticide exposure, and increase their income while limiting negative impacts on natural resources through sustainable agricultural programs, thanks to the Virginia Tech-led Integrated Pest Management Collaborative Research Support Program (IPM CRSP).
This program, funded by a $17 million, five-year grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is already helping people in
32 countries. IPM CRSP is designed to improve crop yields through ecologically sound practices. As the managing entity, Virginia Tech’s
Office of International Research, Education, and Development (OIRED), is working with 22 university partners in the United States and 62 host country institutions using research to find safe, low-cost solutions to agricultural pest problems.
Pests include insects, weeds, diseases, and animals. While many IPM issues are local or regional, a series of issues are worldwide in scope and best addressed on a global basis. This is because they involve a problem that is similar everywhere or because the issue is method- or service-based. Given the resource limitations of the IPM CRSP, the need to develop programs in several regions, and the importance of funding a critical mass of activity on each issue, the IPM CRSP has identified six critical issues of this kind to support. They include:
Under the Regional Themes Programs, the IPM CRSP addresses geographically delimited interventions that provide the most return on investment. Although these programs are limited to specific areas, the CRSP has strategically selected seven programs from a range of geographic regions.
Starting in 1993, Virginia Tech managed Phases I and II of the IPM project, which is now in Phase III. To address a pest problem, research scientists at host country institutions collaborate with Virginia Tech researchers or other university partner researchers to investigate approaches to pest control that eliminate or minimize damage to people, livestock, other wildlife, and the environment. A competitive grant process managed by OIRED selected projects for the current funding cycle.
Virginia Tech’s approach also recognizes the critical
role of gender in human cultures and incorporates these considerations into research projects(continued...) |
