Pecan ipmPIPE: Harnessing the Internet for stakeholders in production agriculture

A new, open-access article in the Journal of Integrated Pest Management examines the Pecan Pest Information Platform for Extension and education (PIPE), a program that provides a new informatics resource that targets 5,000 pecan stakeholders located primarily in the southern tier of the United States.

Pecan scientists and producers working with information technology experts have developed and delivered this program via the Internet since 2009. Stakeholder participation in and adoption of this resource has grown since inception and is expected to continue as new upgrades are made. More than 41,000 visits have been recorded annually, page loads have increased by 312%, unique visitors have increased by 205%, and return visitors have increased by 32%.

Major program features are the interdisciplinary organization of information relevant to conducting pecan integrated pest management aided by search engines that provide real time access to information for the status of the Pecan Nut Casebearer tailored to any location across the pecan belt, and the interactive involvement of scientists and producers in real time that is enabled by informatics.

Producers are discovering, contributing to, and using more resources from the Internet to incorporate into their programs, including Pecan ipmPIPE. Simultaneously, all stakeholders are rethinking and reshaping the role the Internet can play in their respective efforts to improve the pecan industry.