Project Number: 5306-21220-005-24
Project Type: General Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Sep 01, 2012
End Date: Aug 31, 2014

Objective:
Compare sociological and economic factors in terms of their influence on adoption of preventative control practices for wood-canker diseases of grape and pistachio.

Approach:
Combine empirical data, survey responses, and the long-term costs of reduced crop longevity in the first comprehensive economic analyses of wood-canker diseases. Annual labor/material costs for fungicide sprays and delayed pruning are easy to compare on paper, but the benefit of these practices are not seen for many years. With clear comparisons of the long-term returns of adopting preventative practices, growers will be able to choose the most economic approach for their scale of production and will adopt them earlier.