The Prairie Crop Disease Monitoring Network: Fostering further network development
Term: 5 years, beginning in 2023
Status: Ongoing
Researcher(s): Kelly Turkington, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
SaskCanola Investment: $31,087
Total Project Cost: $520,280
Funding Partners: TBC
Objectives
Further development and formalization of the Prairie Crop Disease Monitoring Network (PCDMN) network including annual in-person and/or online meetings.
Further development and refinement of survey protocols, as well as continued work on disease information and awareness initiatives.
PCDMN Quick Disease Reporter Tool refinement, and development of disease assessment/risk tools and blackleg pathogen mapping.
Technology transfer (field days, crop tours, fall/winter meetings, PCDMN webinars, etc.).
Project Description
The outputs and deliverables of a PCDMN companion ADF and AFC project encompass a wider range of stakeholders including researchers, extension staff, producers, agronomists/consultants, producer groups, industry, and provincial and national organizations related to plant disease monitoring. Benefits and impacts to producers and Canada are:
Enhanced coordination of annual field crop disease monitoring and awareness activities over a wider range of field crops including the use of common recommended monitoring protocols, and improved proficiency of monitoring. In the long-term the project will help to provide consistent information on plant disease prevalence and impact across the Prairie region. This information will be important to producers, industry, producer groups and researchers, as it will facilitate their ability to respond to, and effectively monitor and manage key Prairie disease issues in a timely and prudent fashion.
The availability of more extensive and timely information for field crop disease identification, understanding, awareness and risk identification for producers and industry. For producers this will facilitate their use of appropriate management strategies, including extending rotations, strategic variety choice, and more timely and prudent fungicide use, which will lead to economic, environmental, and societal benefits.
For producers the project will help to reduce the impact of diseases on Prairie field crop productivity, improve net returns and increase the availability of quality crop outputs for various end use markets.
The project and its deliverables can be readily integrated into and complement existing research activities, and crop production and disease management systems, thus providing immediate benefits to researchers, producers, and industry.
An additional benefit for producers and industry is related to demonstrating to end-use markets and consumers that Prairie producers are managing field crop diseases using prudent and sustainable management strategies.
Prior to the development of the CAP ICAC PCDMN Phase 1 (and for many diseases prior to the current AFC/ADF proposals) there was a lack of coordinated and organized recommendations for field crop biovigilance protocols. Surveillance protocols have varied across provinces, while some results are much more comprehensive than others. Moreover, rating scales may differ so that a data point in one province cannot be easily compared with a data point in another, which can be particularly confusing for growers near provincial boundaries. There is a significant amount of disease surveillance and monitoring being done across the prairies. However, for some crops and diseases it may not be consistent in all provinces, and is not well-coordinated between provinces to maximize efficiency and uniformity. Finally, the information that is generated from current surveillance activities is often not readily available in a form that can be used by producers and crop consultants/scouts/advisors for crop planning as well as risk awareness for guiding in-crop management options.
Overall, the project will emphasize further development and refinement of the PCDMN, including developing new methods and improving existing protocols for disease/pathogen monitoring, enhancing information dissemination online, and strengthening coordination of annual biovigilance efforts primarily via annual in-person meetings (this wasn’t able to happen previously due to COVID). Moreover, it will enhance monitoring protocols, and awareness regarding disease biology, identification and risk assessment, and key management strategies. An improved suite of awareness and risk assessment tools will be part of the proposed project and represents an advancement, while also providing significant additional value over the current project. Specifically for canola, biovigilance protocols developed in the current ICAC project will be improved for blackleg and sclerotinia, and new protocols will be created for clubroot, fusarium wilt, and verticillium stripe.