Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
APPENDIX A USDA DEFINITIONS OF ALTERNATIVE BELTWIDE COTTON INSECT MANAGEMENT PROGRAM OPTIONS Six beltwide boll weevil/cotton insect management programs were defined and approved by SEA-ES and APHIS personnel in consultation with Optimum Pest Management Regional Extension Education Advisory Committee (OPMREEAC), the Overall Evaluation Team, and the Facilita- tor Group. The program definitions are: Current Insect Control (CIC) assumes insect control as now practiced by producers ranging from no control to intensive treatment with insecticides. Current insect control implies a continuation of extension education and technical assistance at the present level of funding. Optimum Pest Management with Continuing Incentives for Boll Weevil Management (OPM-I) would consist of two major insect manage- ment options, whichever is most applicable for a particular area. Additional extension personnel and support would be required to implement both options. One option, Optimum Pest Management (OPM) would utilize the boll weevil/cotton insect management practices that were tested in the Mississippi trial with emphasis on diapause and pin-head square treatments, as needed, and full reimbursement for the cost of these treatments. In all areas where the diapause strategy could not be implemented or where it is not needed, an alternate option, Modified Optimum Pest Management (MOPM) would be followed. It would utilize, if applicable, all the practices tested in the Missis- sippi trial except the organized areawide diapause strategy, but may include voluntary diapause treatments by individual producers. In areas having potential for moderate-to-heavy infestations of boll weevils, the OPM option would be implemented where effective. Dispause and pinhead square treatments would be specified as recom- mended technology. The criterion for an effective program is to maintain the midseason population of boll weevils below treatment levels on 90 percent or more of the acreage prior to onset of Helio- this pressure. Growers would be reimbursed for boll weevil diapause and pinhead square treatments at such a level and over sufficient treated acreage to achieve an effective program. l04
l03 other state in the Cotton Belt. Texas is the largest cotton- producing state in the boll weevil infested area of the Cotton Belt, but there are many areas in the state where the weevil is not a major pest. These areas are the least likely to receive great benefits from weevil eradication. Thus, Texas may be the most difficult state in which to obtain grower approval of a mandatory weevil eradication. The state Extension Service had a great deal to do with organi- zation of the Texas Pest Management Association, which, along with private consultants, has been very active in bringing about grower acceptance of crop management practices that will provide the best control of cotton pests. All of these practices are economically sound and lead toward reduced insecticide use. The extension service in other states has also fostered areawide approaches to cotton insect management. Such approaches can be carried out in any area of the Cotton Belt, limited only by the desire and imagination of the local populace. Current Insect Control (CIC) Current insect control (CIC) is not without its success stories. Pontotoc County, the comparison area for the OPM trial, has been used as an example of successful CIC, and in some other Mississippi coun- ties, 90 percent of the cotton acreage is under a pest management consultant's care (J. Kimbrough III, Lexington, MS, personal communi- cation, l980). In areas where private consultants are particularly active, growers utilizing their services have seen the economic and ecologic advantages of coordinated pest management in practice. The adoption of more sophisticated pest management practices because of greater environmental and economic awareness among growers is in- creasing each year. Current insect control practice is rapidly evolving into integrated pest management (IPM), which lacks only government subsidies for diapause treatments to become optimum pest management (OPM).
