Dr. Ashfaq Sial from University of Georgia Department of Entomology and Dr. Mary Rogers from the Department of Horticultural Science, University of Minnesota, are soliciting organic grower input on the impacts of the invasive Spotted Wing Drosophila on small fruit. They have designed a short survey to help estimate the magnitude of damage from this pest and help direct applied, multi-state research aimed at improving management tactics for organic producers.
A planning grant is being developed using the information gathered from this survey. If the planning grant is approved, it would allow researchers, extension educators, and industry and government representatives to work together to develop a full proposal to the USDA NIFA Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI) to fund research and education programming to address the management of SWD for organic production. Several eastern US researchers and extension people and stakeholders from the eastern US will be involved, including people from Cornell.
Your input is valuable and this survey will just take 5 minutes of your time. The survey will be active through Wednesday, April 30th.
Thank you.
Dr. Greg Loeb, Grape and Small Fruit Entomologist, Cornell University Department of Entomology