California PestCast:
A Weather Network To Support Crop Disease Management Decisions
California PestCast is a collaborative project of the University of California, Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) , and the California agricultural industry. The overall goal of the project is to expand the use of computer-based crop disease forecasting to reduce unnecessary pesticide use. More specifically, this project will provide an infrastructure to collect appropriate weather data, facilitate the research and validation of models of crop diseases, demonstrate their utility, and further local implementation efforts. Based on proposals from industry and scientist participants, regional weather networks are being developed. Data will be gathered centrally, quality controlled, stored, and made available to users.
A number of crop-disease combinations have already been identified by researchers within California as of particular interest to the agricultural community. For some of these diseases, models do exist in various stages of development.
As a part of this project, we are developing a centralized database containing crop disease models. We intend to include not only models developed within California but also in other parts of the U.S. or other countries. We would like to take this opportunity to inform interested researchers and members of the agricultural community about the existence of this project and also solicit input on what crops, crop models, and what parameters should be included in the database. To add to the disease model database, please fill out a form by clicking here.
The database is being constructed by Dr. Janet C. Broome, Biologically Integrated Farming systems coordinator, UC SAREP, and Joyce F. Strand, Meteorologist with University of California, Statewide IPM Project . The actual database upon construction will reside with the rest of the California PestCast network at the University of California, Statewide IPM Project. California PestCast has a technical advisory committee made up of most of the research and extension plant pathologists within the University of California system.
Currently, there is A Request for Proposals to identify weather data-collection needs related to crop disease model development and validation in California.
For more information on the disease database or to provide information on models, please contact