Project Overview

Reports

Commodities

• Vegetables: cucurbits

Target Pests

Practices

• Pest Management: chemical control, decision support system, forecasting, pesticide resistance management, pesticides

The foliar disease downy mildew is recognized as the most important disease on pickling and slicing cucumber (Cucumis sativus) in the United States. Downy mildew is considered by the Fungicide Resistance Action Committee to have a high risk of developing resistance to fungicides, and it can potentially cause yield reductions of up to 100% without effective control measures. The economic impact of fungicide resistance to cucurbit downy mildew affects producers, wholesalers, and consumers. Producers face losses with unsuccessful fungicide applications and yield reduction due to uncontrolled downy mildew. The wide reach of this disease and inefficacy of fungicides result in shorter supply, which generates consumer welfare losses due to higher prices. To evaluate the economic impact of downy mildew and fungicide resistance on cucumbers four objectives will be performed: (i) a meta-analysis of published yield data to quantify economic effects of fungicide resistance; (ii) survey cucumber producers to characterize current practices; (iii) field experiments to identify fungicide efficacy and disease impacts within a field; and (iv) an economic analysis of the outcomes obtained in (i), (ii) and (iii) to identify economic losses for producers.

1. Identify which fungicides are effective at combating downy mildew and maintaining yields. We will use meta-analysis techniques to examine the effects of fungicide resistance in cucumber downy mildew using information on yields from reports published.

2. Identify farmers’ current practices and farmers’ willingness to change these practices to better combat downy mildew. We will survey cucumber producers during summer of 2020 and at grower talks at the end of the project.

3. Determine the effectiveness of a variety of fungicides on managing downy mildew and maintaining yields. To evaluate effectiveness, we will conduct two experiments on cucumbers during spring and fall of 2020 where the treatments are different fungicides, examining the yield (weight of the fruit) over time as the disease propagates within a field.

4. Estimate farmer’s profitability when downy mildew is present and a variety of fungicides are used. To evaluate farmer’s profit under different scenarios, we will use the outcome of objectives 1, 2 and 3 to model the farmer’s profit maximization based on the use of different fungicides and the use of information provided by Cucurbit Downy Mildew Integrated Pest Information Platform for Extension and Education (CDM IPM PIPE).