Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2009

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design

Department

Agricultural & Extension Education

Committee Chair

Stacy A. Gartin.

Abstract

Modernization of agriculture has exponentially increased the use of pesticides in the last six decades. Pesticides were considered to be the only solution to control weeds, insect pests and diseases to enhance and sustain productivity in agriculture. This led to indiscriminate use of pesticides causing severe pollution to air, water, food and fiber. Integrated pest management (IPM) is the use of combinations of several alternative pest control measures to keep the pests under the economic threshold level. The United States Department of Agriculture has promoted the use of integrated pest management for the past three decades with a goal to expand the adoption of IPM to 75% of the United States crop acreage by the year 2000.;This study was designed to determine the knowledge of West Virginia corn producers about integrated pest management concepts, their level of adoption and the educational needs on integrated pest management. The data for the study were collected via 100 questionnaires mailed to farmers in the top five corn producing counties in West Virginia. Of these, 64 surveys were returned.;It was found that 62 (96.9%) of the respondent corn producers were practicing IPM concepts to some degree. Further it was revealed that more than 75% of the responding corn producers needed more information on various aspects of corn crop management.

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