$3.7M project will study high tunnels, create online tool for farmers

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — A Purdue professor is leading a $3.7 million USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture project through its Specialty Crop Research Initiative.

The four-year project will lead to integrated pest management and crop management recommendations, as well as an online tool to help farmers decide what approach would improve their profit.

“We want to understand the environmental constraints for the plants and pests in high tunnels throughout the seasons and how pest pressures may differ across the urban to rural landscape,” said Laura Ingwell, assistant professor of entomology at Purdue University.

“The goal is to help growers improve yields and profits and to improve food security for local communities and sustainable practices for all growers.”

A team of experts from Purdue, the University of Illinois and the University of New Hampshire will be involved in the project, as well as farmers.

The team will use weather stations to track air and soil temperatures and humidity both inside and outside of the tunnels.

They also will directly monitor pests and beneficial insects through site visits and passive traps.

“This study is a collaboration with the growers, and we are not asking them to change their crops or do anything differently,” Ingwell said.

“We simply want to observe. Then we will be able to make recommendations and develop tools to help all growers from urban to rural settings and from community to small commercial systems.”

One goal is to create a resource for farmers to help them make decisions.

“We want to build an easy-to-use online tool, like TurboTax, where farmers can answer inputs and expenses questions and the tool performs an assessment and offers financial guidance” said Ariana Torres, associate professor of agricultural economics and horticulture and landscape architecture at Purdue.

“Not every farmer grows the same way. When you have multiple crops, it may be complicated to do these financial calculations and it takes time small farmers don’t have. We hope this tool will clearly show the impact of one approach versus another.”

The tool also will show the impact of integrated pest management over time.