Climate Change Influence on Disease Control Patterns in the Okanagan Tree Fruit Industry [fi15]
| Region | Okanagan |
| Status | completed in 2017 |
| Project Lead | Canadian Agricultural Services |
| Funding Partners | Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, BC Ministry of Agriculture, Paloverde Environmental Ltd |
| Other Partners | agriculture producers, BC Tree Fruit Cooperative, UBC Okanagan |
Climate change is causing an increase in annual temperatures (including an increase in winter minimum temperatures), shifting precipitation patterns and drier summer conditions. These effects give rise to changes in agriculture pest and disease populations including: increase in winter survival, introduction of new pests and diseases and changing ranges/distribution of pests and diseases. This can result in increased damage to crops, impacts to crop health, increased management costs and complexity, as well as decreasing effectiveness of pest models used for pest management.
This project will coordinate weather and disease data with a mapping software program allowing this relationship to be displayed geographically. This will visually convey information about disease distribution, its relative severity, its chemical resistance and its relationship to other factors such as microclimate, soils and pest management techniques. As information is gathered throughout the project, patterns will become clearer and more accurate. This project will establish a baseline for the distribution of three key disease areas: tree cankers, general fruit rot of stone fruits and soil diseases. These pathogen parameters will also be tied to soil analysis data and tree status data.
This information will be made available to the general grower population through their farm computers, through the growers cooperatives and through their independent field monitors. Broad recommendations will be summarized into reports and pest management recommendations. Project outcomes and recommendations will also be directly shared with grower groups, at meetings for extension personnel, and through industry magazines.