CROP's mission is to enhance the success of Arizona's diverse agriculture through improved cross-commodity interactions among industry stakeholders and University of Arizona research and educational programs.
Arizona's agricultural systems are becoming increasingly diverse. This diversification has resulted in an increasing number of cross-commodity interactions. These interactions span a diverse group of agricultural issues including shared pests and shared pest control chemistries and technologies. One example of such an interaction is the silverleaf whitefly, a shared pest of agricultural row crops (cotton) and vegetable crops (melons, lettuce). Control of this pest depends on a suite of shared chemistries, potentially including novel classes and insect growth regulators. In order to conserve the efficacy of these compounds and to develop other area wide approaches to insect management, cross-commodity effects and uses must be taken into consideration.
CROP is composed of many different, integrated components. One is the formation of an advisory group that identifies and prioritizes cross-commodity issues. The formation of this group sets up a mechanism to proactively handle cross-commodity problems before they become acute. Other components of CROP are the collection, development, publication, distribution and dissemination of cross-commodity information and tools.
One of the tools created by this effort is ACIS, the Arizona Crop Information Site. This web site (http://ag.arizona.edu/crops) has pulled together many of the existing University of Arizona web sites for different commodities into one, easy to use site. New information on these commodities and cross-commodity issues have been written and placed on this site, creating a rich, one-stop source for the University of Arizona's crop production and protection information.
The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA