IPM Adoption and Impacts in the United States

Abstract Increased Integrated Pest Management (IPM) adoption hinges not only on the future of innovative research, but also on the willingness of growers to adopt new IPM technologies. Adoption and diffusion of innovations can encounter many different challenges. By better understanding the drivers of and barriers to IPM adoption, future research, extension, and education can better target behavior change. This study sought to better understand the IPM adoption drivers and barriers, along with the impacts of IPM, from the perspective of state IPM coordinators via an online Qualtrics survey. These professionals have a statewide perspective on IPM adoption. There were 37 completed surveys out of 56 email survey invitations, a 66% response rate. Overall, the participants ranked ‘high cost of practice’ as the most critical barrier to IPM adoption. ‘Difficulty of implementation’ and ‘lack of awareness’ were also highly ranked as critical barriers to adoption. When asked about ways to increase IPM adoption, participants ranked ‘improved cost-benefit analysis’ as the most critically important. Overall, these findings demonstrate the importance of providing improved IPM economic cost-benefit analyses to accompany the promotion of new and existing IPM innovations. Furthermore, even though the results of this study suggest that the impact of the Regional IPM Centers has been increasing regional IPM coordination, communication, collaboration, and cooperation. These findings also suggest a need for more comprehensive extension and education programs to specifically address the perceived ‘high cost of practice,’ ‘difficulty of implementation’, and ‘lack of awareness’ by communicating improved IPM cost-benefit analyses.