Inspection Getting a Boost from Growers

Inspection Getting a Boost from Growers. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. A pilot project directing Oregon nursery growers to proactively reduce the potential for sudden oak death appears to be working. It's a voluntary program called the Grower Assisted Inspection Program. It's a systems approach to dealing with the fungus that causes sudden oak death. Gary McAninch of the Oregon Department of Agriculture says the three-year old program is now at a point where data can begin to be analyzed. MC ANINCH: In some of the nurseries, the data appears to be showing very good results. In some of the nurseries, the results aren't so clear. It's not that they are bad results, it's just that we need to collect more information to know in some of the nurseries if it's actually working or not. GAIP empowers participating nurseries to do their own inspections and adopt management practices that lessen the likelihood of finding Phytophthoras in that nursery. For some of the volunteer nurseries, the process has kept the plant material relatively clean, but it has changed some of their practices in order to mitigate the disease. MC ANINCH: It may mean some type of different way of managing the water at their nursery or different way of managing their used pots or how they hold their growing media. GAIP also appears to offer a cost effective way to inspect for Phytophthoras and may be considered nationally as a substitute for the current mandatory inspection and certification program for high-risk nurseries conducted by ODA and required by USDA. Mc Aninch says the GAIP Program is designed to reduce the possibility of sudden oak death found in nurseries by having them adopt best management practices. But now it appears to be a potential substitute for the more labor-intensive and costly inspection program conducted by ODA and required by USDA. MC ANINCH: Initially it was to get to the root of the problem and maybe come up with a better way of mitigating the disease itself. But we also think it may be as cost effective or more cost effective. Mc Aninch says some nurseries participating in GAIP are seeing good results. Others, it's too early to tell as they continue to train employees, install new equipment, and get rid of any Phytophthora that may be at high levels in the nursery. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.