REEport Final Report Template for Formula or Grant Projects

Transcription

1 REEport Final Report Template for Formula or Grant Projects If you have any questions while completing this template, please contact your AES Coordinator. Once you have completed the information, please forward the entire document to your AES Coordinator. Please note that any field marked with an * requires information. Target Audience* Provide a description of the target audience(s) reached by your efforts during this reporting period only. The target audience(s) you describe should include only those that your efforts reached during the current reporting period; this may mean that the audiences you list are only a subset of the all those you included on your project initiation. If you have no Target Audience to report, please indicate Nothing to Report below. According to the USDA s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) findings, there were 279 mushroom growers in the United States, producing more than 900 million pounds of mushrooms at a market value of 1.10 billion annually. There are 67 mushroom farm operations in Pennsylvania and nine more farms along the east coast. Last year Pennsylvania farms produced million pounds of mushrooms, leading the nation in production, at a value of $462 million. The demographics of the industry s owners and workforce are in transition. Now, first or second generation Mexican Americans make up the workforce of the mushroom industry. There are approximately ten mushroom farms owned by Mexican Americans. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, Hispanics of all races are the largest minority in the country, representing 16 % of the total U.S. population, about 50.5 million individuals. Between 2000 and 2010, the Hispanic population grew by 43 percent. The Census Bureau projects that by the year 2050 there will be million Hispanic individuals, comprising 30 % of the U.S. population. Hispanic s share of the nation s total population is projected to almost double, from 16 percent to 30 percent. Thus, nearly one in three U.S. residents would be Hispanic. As reported in the U.S. Department of Agriculture 2007 Census, Hispanics claim the highest rate of new farmers in the nation. Out of 66,671 farms and ranches there were a total of 82,462 Hispanics operators across the United States. The number of Hispanic operators grew 14 percent from 2002, significantly out pacing the 7 percent increase of U. S. farm operators overall. A total of 55,570 U. S. farms had a principal operator of Spanish, Hispanic origin in 2007, increasing 10 percent since Of the 2% U.S. population working in agriculture, 1.5% is Hispanic. During , states in our immediate region show high Hispanic population growth rates: PA (82.6%), Delaware (96.4%) and Maryland (106.5%) (National Council of La Raza). Of the 11,000 employees in the mushroom industry in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware, an estimated 10,000 are Hispanic (as reported by the American Mushroom Institute). According to findings from National Agricultural Workers Survey, Spanish was predominantly the native language of farm workers (81%). Of U.S. born Hispanic farm workers, 66% said that they could read and write English well. The number drops to 4% of Mexican born Hispanics. Fifty seven percent of Mexican born workers said they could not speak English at all, while 68% said they could not read English. Hispanics have a great, unmet need for accessible IPM information, education and resources at the individual, organizational and community level. The social, linguistic and economic disadvantages faced by many Hispanics leave them less able than other groups to understand and manage environmental hazards. Low levels of education and English-language proficiency, especially among recent immigrants, limit their ability to access information. Presently, pest control in mushroom farming is limited to the routine application of insecticides at different cultivation stages, supplemented with fumigant treatments directed at adults. Current constraints associated with the

2 use of chemical insecticides and increasing consumer demand for reduced pesticide inputs necessitate the development of novel insect pest control programs in mushroom production. Products* Identify the standard products/outputs that are expected to be achieved during the life of this project. If you have no Products (publications, patents, or plant variety protection applications) to report, please indicate Nothing to Report below. Nothing to Report Other Products* Enter the significant products/outputs achieved during the project duration as a result of the project s research, extension or education activities. NIFA considers the terms products and outputs to be synonymous. Please duplicate and complete the following fields for each Other Product to be reported. If you have products that do not fit within the Type options below, please include that information in the Accomplishments portion of the report. If you have no Other Products to report, please indicate Nothing to Report below. Click here to enter text. Product Type: Choose an item. Description: Translation into Spanish of Power Point presentations for trainings conducted during several events. SURVEYS (included at the end of the report) 1. Survey for Upper Management (English and Spanish) 2. Survey for Farm Employees (English and Spanish) 3. Survey conducted at the 2014 Mid Atlantic Fruit & Vegetable Convention Hershey, PA TRANSLATION OF POWER POINT PRESENTATIONS 1. Personal Protective Equipment for Pesticide Application - Example Labels 2. Best Management Practices (IPM, Record Keeping, Licensing Requirements) 3. Fundamentals of IPM 4. Fly Life Cycles 5. MSDS to SDS Transition 6. Pesticide Label Review 7. Formaldehyde SS Cultural Control for Mushroom Growing TRAININGS CONDUCTED IN SPANISH (Cooperation of PA IPM Program and Chester County Coop. Extension, Berks County Coop. Extension, several Penn State Extension Departments and the American Mushroom Institute) 1. Personal Protective Equipment for Pesticide Application Example Labels (Chester County 03/20/13) 2. Best Management Practices (IPM, Record Keeping, Licensing Requirements) (Chester County 03/20/13) 3. Fundamentals of IPM (Chester County 03/20/13) 4. Fly Life Cycles (Chester County 03/20/13) 5. MSDS to SDS Transition (Chester County 09/12/13) 6. Pesticide Label Review (Chester County 09/12/13) 7. Formaldehyde SS 37 (Chester County 09/12/13) 8. Cultural Control for Mushroom Growing (Chester County 09/12/13) Accomplishments* The major goals of the project will prepopulate based on what was submitted on the original project initiation or proposal submission to USDA. With those goals in mind, please answer the following questions:

3 What was accomplished under these goals?* The overall goal of the project was to increase risk management skills of English and especially Spanish speaking / Hispanic members of the mushroom farm community through the enhancement of the IPM application. This goal was approached by creating a Hispanic Growers Advisory Group for IPM education and training. This project was a multi-state program for the mushroom farm community in the northeast including Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland facilitated through Penn State Extension, PSU IPM. We identified and established cooperative relationships with mushroom growers across state boundaries (PA, DE, MD) and established a partnership between the American Mushroom Institute, mushroom growers, various organizations that serve the Hispanic Community and the PA Integrated Pest Management Program within Penn State Extension. We identified partner / stakeholder needs and priorities for bilingual IPM materials and programming, best methods by which these should be extended and archived. We evaluated the needs by holding partner/stakeholders meetings and conducted surveys. The following is a summary of accomplishments: 1. We established cooperation between PSU faculty and staff from several Departments on IPM issues (PA IPM, Horticulture, Plant Pathology, Food Safety, Entomology, Pesticide Education, Rural Health, Farm Safety) and Penn State Cooperative Extension Offices (Chester and Berks).. 2. We established cooperative relationships with mushroom growers in the mid-atlantic region (PA, DE, MD) and established a partnership among the American Mushroom Institute, mushroom growers and Penn State Extension. 3. The Advisory group included members representing Penn State (6), the American Mushroom Institute (3), and mushroom growers (7). 4. We administered a survey during the Summer/Fall of 2013, a break-out discussion at the Penn State Mushroom Short Course in September 2013, the Mid Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention in Hershey, PA on January We identified culturally preferred learning styles and needs of Hispanic farmers and employees. By creating a learning environment that is less academic and more hands on, such as on the farm learning and roundtable discussions, we allow for a more comfortable atmosphere for participation and discussion. Due to varying levels of education and literacy, teaching in Spanish makes information more accessible to more people. An appropriate education strategy will help transition the next generation of mushroom farm workers while maintaining the mushroom farm communities leadership and voluntary self-regulation. 6. Surveys of farm owners and upper management were completed in October 2013 and on farm interviews with the Spanish-speaking farm workers were completed in January Preliminary survey results were analyzed and shared with the Advisory Group to discuss results and future training goals. Some results of the Management Survey (IPM Survey for Owners and Upper Management) are presented here. a) A total of 69 responses from 40 farms (out of which 51 responses were from English speaking managers and 18 responses were from Spanish speaking managers). b) A combined 62% responded that they always use IPM; 72.55% of surveys in English and 33.33% of surveys in Spanish. But there is a great variation in the responses when asked the percentage pesticide use reduction due to IPM, answered varied from 90% to 10%. c) Only 26% were able to correctly answer a simple question related to the length of the life cycle of mushroom s most important pest, Sciarid flies, F. d) Pesticides are used throughout the entire growing cycle of the crop, including harvesting. e) When asked if their employees understand the importance of IPM used at the farm, only 14.49% responded that their employees always understand the importance of IPM; 44.93% believe they usually understand but not always. f) A total of 91.30% responded that it would helpful to train the employees on IPM if the sessions could be offered in Spanish. g) Nearly 90% expressed that it would help their business to have IPM information (articles, manuals, trainings) translated into Spanish. h) Pests of major concern in their farms were: Sciarid flies, Verticillum, Trichoderma Green Mold, Phorid flies, Cobweb mold, Bacterial Blotch, Syzigites and Virus diseases. Nearly 90% responded that their farm would benefit from training sessions, workshops and educational materials in English and Spanish on these topics.

4 i) Average percentage loss of crops due to pests ranged from 5-30%. j) Nearly 89% agree that programs in Spanish would help Spanish-speaking employees pass the pesticide applicator exam. The full survey report is included at the end of this document. Recommendations of the Advisory Group included: 1) Trainings in Spanish on IPM techniques, mushroom pests & diseases (train the trainer sessions for supervisors, in farm trainings for employees); 2) Biannual Pesticide meetings conducted in Spanish (to obtain core and category credits required to maintain pesticide applicator license); 3) Translation of existing educational Materials into Spanish (IPM Manual, articles and literature from PSU Plant Pathology Department, etc); 4) Creation of new educational materials in Spanish (flip book, ebook, posters); 5) Creation of open round table focus group for Hispanic growers; 6) Develop programing in Spanish to help Hispanic growers and employees understand the content of the Private Pesticide Applicator Certification exam An outline of meetings and activities are included below. (see Activity Log for Mushroom IPM Grant 1) What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?* If you have nothing to report in this area, please indicate Nothing to Report below. The project has provided for future opportunities and trainings by identifying key areas, from the survey, in mushrooms science, disease, and integrated pest management where there is a knowledge gap or indication of topics where information can be reexamined and applied. Through the IPM Mushroom Advisory Committee and conducting IPM break-out sessions at the Penn State Mushroom Short Course, the project identified culturally preferred learning styles of Hispanic farmers and employees through methods such as on farm learning and roundtable discussions. This understanding of preferred learning styles and environments will improve the delivery methods of future workshops and trainings. This helps educators better prepare for a different learning environment as well, and better understand learning styles of their audience. More professional development opportunities have been linked through the established relationships between the American Mushroom Institute, Penn State Extension offices (Chester and Berks counties) and Penn State University faculty across several departments. These new cross department relationships also allow for Penn State to identify other focus areas that may provide future extension programs offered in Spanish. By participating in an additional half dozen mushroom industry related meetings, the survey was shared with several different audiences within the mushroom farm community including the community outreach committee of AMI, the Mushroom Farmers of Pennsylvania, as well as the Food Safety Task Force. Due to survey response and success, future trainings were identified required in disease and pests subject matter. Pests and disease of major concern included the following: Sciarid flies, Verticillum, Trichoderma Green Mold, Phorid flies, Cobweb mold, Bacterial Blotch, Syzigites and Virus diseases. Nearly 90% responded that their farm would benefit from training sessions, workshops and educational materials in English and Spanish on these topics. Although translations of presentations and trainings were not included in the objective, due to our developing partnerships, we were able to provide a few initial classroom trainings in Spanish. Eight different presentations were presented in Spanish for twenty-three mushroom growers at two bi-annual pesticide credit meetings for mushroom farmers (approximately four training hours). These presentations addressed priority topics for mushroom farm managers and

5 employees such as fundamentals of IPM for mushroom growing, best management practices, personal protective equipment, and cultural controls for mushroom growing. These initial meetings at existing events were important in establishing the educators' relationships with target audiences. The presentations also began conversations among farmers who in turn shared the information to other farmers about future opportunities for trainings in Spanish. This additional effort set the groundwork for the potential next phase of the grant to further implement specific training programs. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?* If you have nothing to report in this area, please indicate Nothing to Report below. The survey results and data were shared with the IPM Mushroom Advisory Group to discuss results and future training goals, as well as the American Mushroom Institute, its respective committees and Penn State mushroom researchers, Dave Beyer and John Pecchia, Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology at Penn State University. This information was shared through regularly scheduled industry meetings. In addition to gathering information on IPM, the survey also included specific questions related to several other Penn State Extension programs, in an effort to distribute this valuable information for future programming in Spanish. The corresponding data was also shared with the following Penn State Extension Departments: Ag Safety & Health, Worker Protection, Pesticide Education, and Ag Entrepreneurship. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?* If you have nothing to report in this area, please indicate Nothing to Report below. Although the objective of this grant period is complete, we plan to continue our program s efforts to educate Hispanic and Traditional Mushroom Growers on IPM practices. Through re-application for the grant we will continue to work with the Hispanic Growers Advisory and pursue development of educational programs and translation of existing IPM and disease materials in to Spanish. Changes/Problems* Describe major changes/problems in approach and reason(s) for these major changes. If applicable, provide special and/or additional reporting requirements specified in the award Terms and Conditions. If you have nothing to report in this area, please indicate Nothing to Report below. "Nothing to Report"