Deadline: 31-Oct-22
The Plant Health Centre (PHC) is seeking applications for the project entitled, “Understanding farmer/agronomist perceptions for decision making in crop health and the impact of that on key metrics such as IPM scores and pesticide usage”.
Increased uptake of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) measures on Scottish farms will be key in improving resilience against pests, weeds and diseases, and also in maintaining or improving crop yields and farm profitability, whilst reducing environmental impact and reliance on pesticides. Previous research shows that better informed farmers and agronomists can make better IPM decisions and score higher in IPM metrics. Research has also identified that decision making on farm is often shared between the farm agronomist and the farmer.
Impact: To improve the flow of IPM knowledge and its uptake to increase the resilience of Scotland’s crops to pests and diseases, whilst reducing reliance on pesticides.
Objectives
- A key objective of this call is to provide a better evidence base on the differences in farmer and agronomist perceptions of risk, and evidence of how these perceptions shape crop protection decisions, including the use of pesticides. Farm type has also been identified as a significant factor on IPM scores so the research proposed should seek to explore interactions between the use of an agronomist, the farm type, the level of crop health risk and the decisions made. Evidence of decisions made could be derived from available metrics such as pesticide usage and other interventions made, as available from annual IPM plans submitted to PHC.
- Better understanding of agronomist perceptions is needed in order to improve the degree to which decision making is discussed and shared between a farmer and their agronomist, so it is important to understand any differences between the perceptions and preferences of these key decision makers.
- Identifying the drivers and barriers to further adoption of IPM practices for different decision makers and farm types will improve the ability to tailor IPM research and knowledge transfer and exchange activities.
- Farmer and agronomist perceptions on barriers to adoption varies significantly. This implies very different KTE needs so recommendations on a KTE strategy should be integral to proposed work.
Funding Information
Maximum funding available (including overheads and VAT, where applicable): Up to £35,000
Outputs
- Final Report (<20 pages of text excluding figures, appendices, and references) on investigations, to contain key sources, analysis, findings and recommendations for implementation or further work.
- Brief policy summary (1-2 pages) explaining how the work has contributed to filling evidence gaps and the context in which the findings can be used by policy makers and practitioners.
- Attendance at briefing discussion with PHC Steering group to discuss findings and next steps.
- Presentation at Scotland’s Plant Health conference or any other relevant stakeholder meeting(s) to disseminate findings and contribution to other KE output such as the PHC virtual poster room or blogs.
- Grower / agronomist meeting(s) to discuss findings.
For more information, visit Plant Health Centre.
For more information, visit https://www.planthealthcentre.scot/call-for-projects
