APPLYING PEER-TO-PEER INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TO BETTER MONITOR AND MANAGE INVASIVE PLANT VIRUSES AND VECTORS

This project is designed to offers producers technologies that will speed up this turnaround time for virus detection and identification in vegetable and fiber crops in Arizona. This producer-driven program is a collaborative effort between the vegetable growers in Arizona and The University of Arizona. UA Coordinators span the Educational Communications and Technologies Office, the Departments of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Entomology, Plant Pathology, Plant Sciences, and the Yuma County Cooperative Extension.

This peer-to-peer program expedites the management of plant virus diseases by providing rapid detection and accurate identification of viral pathogens of vegetables crops.

When diseases occur, it is imperative to confirm virus presence and that identification is established by a professional diagnostics laboratory. Plant pathologists at The University of Arizona and the client will communicate in real-time, using the interactive Internet site, so that the virus is rapidly identified, and based on that information, recommended treatments can be immediately implemented.

Better detection of viruses is a good first step, but growers need also to share information with each other and about what practices they plan to counter prospective losses. Sometimes management practices in a field will drive insect pests and vectors into neighboring fields. This peer-to-peer project facilitates password-protected secure communications through the Internet and offers growers a means of communicating with each other more quickly and with site-specific precision.

Plant viruses are difficult to track from season to season, and growers usually do not know which viruses are present or whether they originated in their own field, a neighbor's field, or from weed reservoirs in the region. During the winter, viruses survive in alternate hosts, particularly weeds and herbaceous native plants that grow in ditch banks, empty urban lots, and in local gardens. Information about specific locations of outbreaks and identified viruses will be backed by a relational database and can be aggregated and used for other purposes, such as gathering statistics for educational purposes, extension use or further research. Year-to-year tracking of sites of viral infection and patterns of disease and its spread in a spatial context will ultimately permit growers and researchers to predict which locations may be most vulnerable to outbreaks, leading to more coordinated efforts to manage the insect vector and associated virus diseases.

One of the biggest current changes in Agriculture is the impact and implementation of new technology. The emerging uses of GPS and web-based technology have just begun, and we see an opportunity to utilize this technology to improve communication and coordination between agricultural producers. The development of a network of peers is expected to have a direct impact on the ability of growers to cooperate with each other for mutual benefit. We expect this technology to improve grower responsiveness to virus diseases and better target chemical applications, toward more sustainable production. Finally, these approaches will enhance producers' ability to better manage financial risk through input cost reductions and decreased market price variability.