May 27, 2009
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| Frank Zalom was part of a team receiving an International IPM Excellence Award at the sixth International IPM Symposium, held recently in Portland, Ore. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) |
DAVIS—Integrated pest management specialist Frank Zalom, professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis, was part of a team receiving an International IPM Excellence Award at the sixth International IPM Symposium, held recently in Portland, Ore.
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Zalom is active in the Collaborative Research Support Program for IPM (IPM-CRSP), sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Zalom, who is part of the group developing IPM programs in Central Asia, including the countries of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, presented a poster at the symposium on “Laboratory and Field Studies of the Predaceous Mites, Amblyseius cucumeris and Amblyseius mckenziei in Central Asia.”
The IPM Excellence Awards are given every three years to individuals or organizations that show significant impact in realizing the economic benefits of IPM activities, reducing health risks for pest management practices, and minimizing adverse environmental impacts of pesticide usage.
The symposium drew 700 IPM professionals from 25 countries.
“Our specific focus,” Zalom said, “is to enhance the capacity and expand the product lines of the extensive network of biolaboratories in Central Asia.”
Zalom is a Fellow of the Entomological Society of America (ESA) and was part of a team that won the ESA’s IPM Team Award last year for their work in developing the IPM program for almonds in California.
IPM CRSP “has brought $500 million in benefits to the countries where IPM CRSP “has brought $500 million in benefits to the countries where we have had programs,” said S.K. De Datta, administrative principal investigator for the program, based at Virginia Tech.
The IPM research program is one of eight Collaborative Research Support Programs (CRSPs) funded by USAID. Symposium officials cited it for its work to raise living standards, reduce malnutrition, and ameliorate health and environmental problems through IPM methods in some of the poorest parts of the world.
Development projects include field schools that build farmers’ knowledge and strengthen their connections both within and beyond their communities. The program also provides graduate-level education to foreign students who then reinvest their knowledge and expertise in their home countries. Some of the most successful projects are biocontrol of insects and diseases in vegetables; eggplant and tomato grafting to resist soil pathogens; and the use of pheromone lures to monitor pest populations.
The program’s research now involves 22 U.S. universities, 57 foreign institutions, and several international agricultural research organizations and non-governmental organizations in 32 developing countries on four continents.
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--Kathy Keatley Garvey
Communications specialist
UC Davis Department of Entomology
(530) 754-6894
