The Establishment of a National Pest Information Platform for Extension and Education

Many millions of US soybean acres that would have received at least one fungicide application remained untreated for soybean rust in 2005 due to information disseminated through the US Department of Agriculture Soybean Rust Information System website. The information provided by the system increased US producers’ profits by between $11 and $299 million at a low cost of between $2.6 and $5 million (8). This savings and the positive environmental implications of not spraying millions of acres with fungicides demonstrates the value of a coordinated national pest management framework and stimulated the development of the 2006 Pest Information Platform for Extension and Education.