CROP PROTECTION AND MANAGEMENT RESEARCH UNIT

Mission: The mission of the CPMRU is to conduct basic, developmental and applied research in the Southeastern Coastal Plain to generate new knowledge, principles and practices for the development of more efficient, economical, environmentally sound, sustainable strategies for the management of nematode, weed, disease, and insect pests of agronomic and vegetable crops that minimize the use of agricultural chemicals and enhance the inherent strengths of our agricultural crops and farms.

Objectives: Based on ARS priorities, our research objectives are to:

1. Conduct basic, developmental, and applied research on the biology and ecology of major pests and their natural enemies to develop a better understanding of how they function in and impact agronomic and vegetable cropping systems in the Southeast.

2. Develop integrated pest management strategies based on the inherent strength of our agricultural systems that are sustainable and rely to a lesser degree on agricultural chemicals for the control of nematode, weed, disease, and insect pests.

3. Develop crop rotations, cover crops, trap crops, and reduced tillage systems to reduce pest populations which impact agronomic and vegetable crops grown in the Southeastern Coastal Plain.

4. Determine the influences of landscape ecology on the population dynamics of major pests of southern crops.

5. Develop economic thresholds for weeds, plant diseases, nematodes and insects and integrate these thresholds into expert systems.

6. Identify new pesticides that, while being effective for pest control, have minimal deleterious effects on natural enemies when recommended for pest intervention.

7. Identify, develop, evaluate and release crop germplasm with resistance to insects, nematodes and aflatoxin formation in corn, cotton and peanut and develop molecular markers that can be used in maker-assisted selection for resistance.

8. Support registration of pesticides by developing phytotoxicity and efficacy data on ornamentals and residue data on minor crops.