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PIPE in peril: Funding running out for soybean rust monitoring system
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By Marilyn Cummins, Editor
StopSoybeanRust.com
4/25/2008 12:30 p.m. CDT -- U.S. soybean growers could soon find themselves in the dark regarding soybean rust and soybean aphids, unless a new funding source is found fast for the USDA IPM Pest Information Platform Extension and Education program, the basis for the rust monitoring system.
The future of the PIPE is in serious peril – with a chance at permanent funding held hostage at the moment along with numerous other farm programs languishing with the farm bill, extended for the fifth time yesterday, this time until May 2.
That’s not the worst news. In a summit on the program called by the Secretary of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. last week, we learned that the increase in a funding line in the president’s budget essential for long-term support of the ipmPIPE isn’t expected to survive the knife in Congress anyway. And just continuing the existing farm bill for a year or longer, as President Bush now wants the House and Senate to do, wouldn’t help the PIPE -– there’s no permanent PIPE funding in the present law to continue.
The successful monitoring and early warning system was developed in record time soon after the first discovery of soybean rust in the U.S in 2004 with funding through USDA/APHIS, and has grown into a model of cooperation and innovation in a private/public partnership with support from the soybean checkoff throughout. Just today a totally new host was found with soybean rust on it in Florida -- the flowering coral bean plant, found in a kudzu site in Marion County.
"I truly believe that if we didn't have PIPE, we would not have found this," said Carrie Harmon, associate director of the Southern Plant Diagnostic Network. The year-round monitoring of the kudzu sites and planting and scouting of soybean plots exist solely due to PIPE.
Part of the reason for the funding crisis is that the PIPE now runs mainly on money provided by the Risk Management Agency, funds that that by law can be used only for start-up R&D -– not to maintain mature ipmPIPE components. The 2009 USDA budget request is for $2.277 million specifically to maintain the SBR ipmPIPE and the core infrastructure of the system necessary for its use for any crop or pest, present or future.
The request for funding to continue the ipmPIPE is proposed as an increase to the Food and Agriculture Defense Initiative section of the USDA budget. (See page 80 of the USDA FY 2009 Budget Summary.) The line already funds ongoing programs such as the National Plant Diagnostic Network (NPDN) and the Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN), so it is not a "new start" in the budget.
Kitty Cardwell, national program leader for plant and animal systems in the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, said that if funding for the line is cut, these other programs will really be hurt, also. But insiders at the summit said Congress is in no mood support increases that they lump together as "Presidential earmarks." Participants discussed possible alternatives, but, as Gale Buchanan, under secretary for Research, Education and Economics, said, "The one shot we really have is the farm bill."
SBR/PIPE could be “virtually decimated”
What happens if the farm bill line request doesn’t go through and replacement funds to keep the ipmPIPE running are not found quickly enough?
Don Hershman, Univ. of Kentucky plant pathologist and chair of the ipmPIPE Steering Committee, said without additional money, the program’s budget is “slated to be cut by 75 percent.” At that level, he said, it would be “virtually decimated.”
It’s hard to see how the timing could be worse. The U.S. soybean crop trading at record prices with a large acreage planned for 2008; we have extremely wet conditions in many soybean-growing areas; most grain and oil crops are rising in price and tightening in supply around the globe; and the scientists charged with keeping field crops and vegetables safe from disease, weeds and insects here and abroad have been hard at work adapting the ipmPIPE to serve a vast number of users in many industries.
Already this year, use of the system has been expanded beyond soybean and legume pests to two new programs – forecasting downy mildew to protect cucurbits like pickling cucumbers and predicting pecan nut casebearer activity – chosen for funding in a competitive grant process that had many qualified applicants, officials said.
In 2007 alone, 13,412 soybean rust observations were uploaded into the PIPE, Hershman said. For 38 months, he said, “We have known where soybean rust is. We’ve never lost track of it.” That knowledge and its public availability on the Web at www.sbrusa.net helped growers save between $209 million and $299 million annually, he said, while helping the fear of soybean rust subside as growers learned to trust the SBR/PIPE monitoring network to know where rust was and where it was likely to move.
As crop consultant Blaine Viator pointed out at the summit, the PIPE is a true example of integrated pest management at its best. “This thing has reduced more pesticide use on our food crops,” he said. “I don’t see how you can do it without a PIPE system.”
Industry groups call for help
Bev Paul, who helps represent the American Soybean Association in Washington, is circulating a letter to Congress among state organizations, land-grant universities and other stakeholders for their signatures in support of impPIPE. In her cover e-mail, she said, "We need a broad and national coalition to take the message to Congress that they need to support the funding for PIPE included in the President's budget." She hopes to send the letter and signatures May 1.
Jay Vroom, president and CEO of CropLife America, put out a news release after the summit calling for action to save “one of the finest examples of private/public partnership in support of effective and responsible use of pesticides. Given the funding troubles, we ask everyone to join us in communicating to Congress and federal agencies with a state in IPM to step forward and guarantee that this effort is sustained and positioned to grow beyond the few crops it serves today.”
Conrad Lavender with Southern Agribusiness Services said, “It is invaluable for users to go to the Internet to get reliable data with only a few buttons. I don’t think we can afford to let this platform die.”
The president of the Georgia Soybean Association – and the grower on whose Georgia farm the first U.S. soybean rust was found – Billy Wayne Sellers, said the SBR/PIPE “has been, and needs to continue to be, a lifesaver for soybean farmers.”
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