Five universities will share a three-year, $1.9 million grant to study pest control methods, treatments and best management practices in wheat. USDA's Risk Avoidance and Mitigation Program awarded the grant to researchers at Colorado State University, Kansas State University, the University of Nebraska, Oklahoma State University and Texas A&M.
With part of the funding, researchers at the universities will work together to develop an Internet-based tool to support unified insect pest management. The "iWheat" program, to be unveiled in late 2012, will monitor wheat fields for key pests and evaluate the effectiveness and economic benefits of seed treatments for pests. The project is anticipated to be completed in December 2014.
The Kansas State University team will also develop a comprehensive website (www.iwheat.org) that can summarize, by geographic region, the occurrence, categorical abundance and identity of pest species and biotypes. This information-driven system will give crop professionals a tool to track changes at the field level.
Users of iWheat will be required to create a personalized account to which they can log in and see management recommendations based on status of pests, diseases and wheat biometric data and temperature.
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