PEST INFORMATION PLATFORM
FOR EDUCATION AND EXTENSION

FY 2007 Request for Concept Notes

also available as PDF download

SUBMISSION DEADLINE:  May 4th, 2007 

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service

Table of Contents

PART I FUNDING OPPORTUNITY DESCRIPTION

A. IPM PIPE Background

B. Call for Concepts for New PIPE Components

C. Format

D. Evaluation Criteria

PART II - PROGRAMATIC CONTACTS

PART III - SUBMISSION INFORMATION

PART I FUNDING OPPORTUNITY DESCRIPTION

A. Background of the IPM PIPE

Millions of U.S. soybean acres would have received fungicide applications for soybean rust (SBR) in 2005 if not for information disseminated through the U.S. Department of Agriculture Soybean Rust Information System website (www.sbrusa.net).  The information provided by this highly trusted and widely adopted system (over 1 million hits in July, 2005) reduced production costs for US soybean farmers by as much as $299 million (ERS estimate), while minimizing non-target exposure to applicators and the environment.  These cost savings and the favorable environmental implications of preventing needless spraying of millions of acres with fungicides, has demonstrated the value of a strategic, coordinated, real-time national pest management framework that has evolved into the 2006 Pest Information Platform for Extension and Education (PIPE).  In 2006 the PIPE focused on soybean rust and aphids and in 2007 is expanded to monitor these and other pests and diseases on other legumes through a partnership of USDA CSREES and Risk Management Agencies, Land Grant Universities, industry partners, and the Regional Integrated Pest Management Centers.

Mission: The mission of PIPE is to realize a dynamic, integrated system to be deployed to a regional or national audience, facilitated by information technology, which provides centralized, useful tools with reliable information for IPM practitioners. Strategy: The strategy for PIPE is to enhance IPM decision support systems to include disease, insect and weed pests of economically important crop plants. The PIPE platform will address local, regional, and national interests; help growers document crop management actions for insurance claims; and provide a structure that can be quickly deployed in response to threats from exotic/invasive pests.  Initial focus: The initial focus will be on plant pests of agricultural and agroforestry systems, however, broader scope applications may be considered by the steering committee in the future. Many resources of the existing PIPE system are expected to be useful in planning for and responding to outbreaks of many pests other than SBR, including the following:

• national and regional communications and coordination,
• facilitators and coordinators,
• support for training and outreach tool development,
• flexible web-based information technology architecture,
• assistance in developing standardized procedures and approaches. 

B. Call for Concepts for New PIPE Components

The IPM community comprised of research, extension, and public policy leaders has interest in further expanding the IPM PIPE through a methodical approach that preserves the benefits already realized while bringing those benefits to other suitable IPM crop and pest situations.

Potential funding from USDA's Risk Management Agency would be authorized by section 522(d) of the Federal Crop Insurance Act.  The legislation provides funds for the purpose of the development and implementation of risk management tools for use by agricultural producers to assist them in mitigating risks inherent in agricultural production.  Funding enhancement and expansion of the PIPE would provide producers with a coordinated framework for monitoring and managing pests of many crop plants and documenting pest management activities at the farm level.

In order to gather data on possible crop/pest combinations, estimated costs, and potential benefits of expansion, we call for submission of IPM PIPE Expansion Concept Notes, using the format provided. Information from these Concept Notes will be compiled and presented to RMA with a request for new funding to be competitively distributed prior to the 2008 growing season. Concept Notes will be used to make the case for the level of funding for this competitive program and when funding is secured the request for full proposals will go out. There is no commitment to provide any funding at this time.  All Concept Note submitters will be specifically contacted when the RFP is released.

In the final RFA, priority projects will address the need for IPM risk management tools for producers of the following agricultural commodities:

•  Agricultural commodities covered by section 196 of the Agricultural Market Transition Act (7 U.S.C. 7333) (Noninsured Assistance Program (NAP)).  Commodities in this group are commercial crops that are not covered by catastrophic risk protection crop insurance, are used for food or fiber, and specifically include, but are not limited to, floricultural, ornamental nursery, Christmas trees, turf grass sod, aquaculture (including ornamental fish), and industrial crops.
• Specialty crops.  Commodities in this group may be covered under a Federal crop insurance plan and include, but are not limited to, fruits, vegetables, tree nuts, syrups, honey, roots, herbs, and highly specialized varieties of traditional crops (e.g. sweet corn, organic soybean or cotton, malting barley, etc.)
• Underserved commodities.  This group includes: commodities that are covered by a Federal crop insurance plan but for which participation in an area is below the national average or there is inadequate crop insurance coverage.

C. Format

No more that 5 pages, 1 inch margins and a 12-pt. font.

Include:

• Executive summary of the concept,
• Justification,
• Implementation process,
• List of important implementers and stakeholders, and
• Budget describing both field-based and diagnostic resources required.

Budgets between $10,000 and $1,000,000 will be considered, however large budgets will have to be well justified across multiple states, regions, and collaborators.

Concept Note writers should:

• Describe developmental activities and costs,
• Describe potential for long-term maintenance of the component,
• Indicate commitment from institutional administrators (dept chairs, directors of extension and experiment station, deans),
• Demonstrate competence & commitment of team,
• Indicate an understanding that local buy-in by implementers has been considered, and what steps would be taken to generate interest by implementers (letters of support would be helpful).
• Address the objective of "putting real-time, highly relevant risk management tools in the hands of growers and their advisors".

Concept Note writers are encouraged to provide as much useful information as possible on importance of the pest addressed relative to:

• Target user group,
• Area and value of affected crop,
• Losses incurred from damage,
• Availability, efficacy of control, cost effectiveness of control
• How control input management could be made more efficient and economical by the PIPE,
• What savings in control inputs, damage avoidance, etc. are expected by inclusion.

D. Evaluation Criteria

Concept Note writers, please read through and use the following approved criteria during the preparation of the concept note. Each project concept may draw on one or more criteria from each of the evaluation criteria categories.

Primary Criteria. The project concept should:

• Provide real-time accurate risk management information and tools that bring education and extension messages to growers,
• Be practical and important to growers, "functionally helpful", with the potential for early pay-off,
• Address a highly visible problem with the promise of quick and large benefits,
• Allow management of unpredictable things,and provides access to new information and changes in a situation that impacts management,
• Provide disease, insect or weed pest management solutions with a realistic cost/benefit (impact/need) ratio,
• Demonstrate high stakeholder interest (letters of interest from user groups would be useful when submitting full proposal).

Criteria relative to the IPM PIPE itself:

• Any group or pest/crop combination in the area of plant agriculture has the opportunity to participate as long as there are deliverable products via the IPM-PIPE portal,
• Projects could demonstrate new ways to use the PIPE (flexibility), and show ways to enhance the capability (technical) of the PIPE,
• Focus primarily on outreach, with research as a short-term means to get to the implementation deliverable; Implementation 1st, Research 2nd, i.e. should not address problems that require basic research prior to being proposed for the PIPE. 

Scope criteria:

Geographic scope- 

• Multi-state, multi-disciplinary, and/or multiple-crops (i.e. wheat & barley both affected by same disease) projects will/may score higher,
• Regionally important pest or disease that could generate data valuable to multiple states,
• Pest complex of multiple state, regional and/or  national importance,
• If the pest/crop complex is on a low-acreage/high value crop and is underserved by crop insurance, it will/may receive additional attention.

Economic scope-

• Economically important crop/pest system,
• High economic impact pest or disease
• High value crops
• Large-scale acreage 
• High value specialty crops
• Underserved crops with need for new risk management tools (considering RMA definitions of underserved crops).

Pest type scope-: IPM PIPE may address but is not limited to any of the following types of crop/pest combinations :

• invasive species,
• recurrent introductions via migratory pathways,
• polyetic, endemic ebb and bloom driven by local conditions,
• pesticide resistant populations of pest/pathogens or emerging strains of endemic pest/pathogens.

Criteria for folding existing programs into IPM PIPE

• Validated pest or disease risk predictive models available (or nearly available),
• Already functional system looking for a stable home,
• Possibility to build onto or scale-up working models to national implementation,
• Incorporates on-going data collection efforts, eg. Aphid suction trap network, migratory Lepidoptera traps, etc.,
• Links with weather impact management tools and recommendation systems,
• Incorporates other/ different weather data collection tools onto the platform,
• Current infrastructure and support for the existing program demonstrably untenable or at risk.

PART II Programmatic Contacts:

Interested parties are encouraged to contact:

Dr. Kitty Cardwell; National Program Leader;
Plant and Animal Systems Unit;
Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service;
U.S. Department of Agriculture; 800 9th St SW
Washington, DC 20024
Telephone: (202) 401-1790; Fax: (202) 401-1602;
E-mail

Dr Don Hershman, Chair IPM PIPE Steering Committee
University of Kentucky
Research and Education Center
PO Box 469 - Plant Pathology Dept
Princeton, KY 42445-0469
Telephone: (270) 365-7541 x215
E-mail

Dr Martin Draper, National Program Leader
Plant and Animal Systems Unit;
Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service;
U.S. Department of Agriculture; 800 9th St SW
Washington, DC 20024
Telephone: (202) 401-1990; Fax: (202) 401-1602;
E-mail

Dr Ed Ready, United Soybean Board
St. Louis MO
Telephone: (314) 579-1598; Fax: (314) 579 1599;
E-mail

Jim VanKirk,
Southern Region IPM Center,
1710 Varsity Drive,
Suite 110, Raleigh, NC 27606
Telephone: (919) 513-8179
E-mail

PART III Submission information

Concept notes will be treated with confidentiality and only used at this time to estimate needs for the 2008 growing season budget.

Concept notes will be accepted until 5 pm EDT, Friday, May 4th, 2007.

Send electronic or paper concept notes to:

Dr. Kitty Cardwell;
U.S. Department of Agriculture; Room 3436
800 9th St SW; Washington, DC 20024
Telephone: (202) 401-1790; Fax: (202) 401-1602;
E-mail