Location: Vegetable Research
Project Number: 6080-30400-034-000-D
Project Type: In-House Appropriated
Start Date: Sep 1, 2026
End Date: Aug 31, 2031
Objective:
Objective 1: Identify and evaluate insect- and plant-produced bioactive chemicals for improved detection, monitoring, and management of vegetable pests.
Objective 2: Develop fundamental information for understanding the influence of abiotic and biotic components on pests and their natural enemies in vegetable cropping systems, and improved strategies for pest management and production of vegetable and strawberry crops in field and controlled environments.
Objective 3: Identify and characterize host-plant resistance and develop improved vegetable germplasm lines that are resistant or tolerant to insect pests and insect-transmitted viruses of vegetable crops and develop germplasm lines that are adapted to low-input and sustainable production systems.
Objective 4: Improve knowledge of pathogen transmission mechanisms by insect vectors and vector-pathogen-host interactions to develop effective strategies for managing pathogen acquisition, transmission, and disease development.
Approach:
Pest management practices for vegetable production routinely require costly inputs of non-renewable resources that contribute to environmental degradation, undesirable pesticide residues, soil erosion, or result in inadequate pest control. This 5-year CRIS project focuses on providing solutions through the development of sustainable pest management options for conventional and controlled environments, as well as organic and other low-input vegetable production systems. Basic and applied approaches will be developed against major pests (including, whiteflies, wireworms, and sweetpotato weevils) of cucurbits, sweetpotatoes, and other vegetables, and against weeds in sweetpotato. Approaches will include the development of plant resistance to economically limiting insect pests and weeds, where resistance will be incorporated into advanced breeding lines and new germplasm. Knowledge will be obtained on the influence of environmental factors on pest and beneficial insects in vegetable crops, and the development of knowledge for the production of vegetables in field and controlled environments. Whitefly:host-plant:virus relationships will be elucidated. The behavior and ecology of wireworms will be characterized. This research will lead to the development of pest-resistant genotypes with improved yield and quality. Improved tools will be developed for managing insect pests and associated whitefly-transmitted viruses, as well as weeds in vegetable cropping systems under unstable environments. Ultimately, the use of high-yielding, pest-resistant vegetable germplasm will enable growers to produce high-quality, nutritious, and affordable vegetables for U.S. consumers. Moreover, improved sustainable pest management technologies will reduce growers’ reliance on chemical pesticides, thus providing safer, more environmentally compatible and sustainable vegetable production systems for these important crops. The 5 USDA, ARS, U.S. Vegetable Laboratory (USVL) investigators, along with 49 university and federal collaborators (including 23 university collaborators from a congressional mandated research relationship) have extensive experiences in pest management and crop production.