Reducing public health and environmental risks associated with pesticide use is of growing concern to governments and citizens in developed and developing countries alike. This concern has motivated the call for the adoption of biologically based Integrated Pest Management (IPM) systems, an essential step in reducing risks from use of highly toxic pesticides. The adoption of IPM systems can achieve real pesticide risk reduction, but only when reliance on chemically based treatments is reduced and biologically based prevention interventions are maximized. IPM systems exist along a continuum ranging from those dominated by treatment oriented practices largely dependent on chemicals, to those mostly reliant on prevention-oriented biological processes.

An essential step in measuring and monitoring over time the risk reduction impacts of IPM is establishing a baseline of IPM adoption along the continuum. This requires collecting field level data on preventive practices, as well as pesticide use data. A measurement system¹ methodology has been developed to draw upon these data in empirically arraying fields or farms growing a particular crop along a continuum of IPM systems. Once farms or fields are divided into these four zones, average per acre pesticide use and risk levels within each zone can be estimated and compared.

Incremental progress along the IPM continuum is critical in reducing reliance and use of high- risk pesticides.

No IPM	Transitional Systems		High or Biointensive IPM
	Low	Medium
Shifting Reliance From Treatment to Prevention
Chemically Based     Biologically Based

Over the last year and a half WWF US has worked in a precedent setting collaboration with the Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association (WPVGA), an agricultural commodity association made up of 250 growers, to achieve industry-wide reductions in pesticide-risk and reliance through the adoption of biologically-based IPM. WWF and WPVGA agreed to ambitious five-year targets for steeply reducing the use of highly toxic chemicals and longer-term targets for the adoption of biologically based IPM. In order to ensure public accountability WPVGA and WWF worked together to implement a measurement system that will track potato growers' progress in meeting pesticide reduction and IPM adoption targets.

First-year results will be based on data collected in 1995 and 1997 on pesticide use in Wisconsin potato production. The collaboration's first-year use reduction goals are applicable to crop season 1997, with 1995 use levels serving as the baseline. Four critical analytical tasks are essential components of the work of the collaboration:

1. Setting quantifiable risk reduction targets and timetables. WPVGA has committed to achieving one, three and five year targets for steeply reducing use of specific acutely and chronically toxic pesticides. In addition, five and ten year goals were established for moving growers from No and Low levels to Medium and High levels of IPM adoption.
2. Defining the IPM continuum. Working with WPVGA growers, crop consultants and IPM research and extension specialists we identified the IPM continuum for potato production in Wisconsin. The continuum captures the importance of specific IPM practices in contributing to the transition away from treatment and toward prevention oriented pest management systems in potato production.
3. Establishing a baseline. In order to measure changes in pesticide use, risk and reliance over time we established an industry-wide chemical use baseline using 1995 data. Practice data collected in 1997 and 1998 will generate the baseline of IPM adoption.
4. Capturing changes in pesticide risk and reliance resulting from IPM adoption. In order to track changes in pesticide risk and reliance, we convert data on pounds of pesticide active ingredient to toxicity adjusted units. The multiattribute toxicity index includes four component indices, each reflecting a broad area of potential risk: acute mammalian, chronic mammalian, ecological, and impacts on beneficial organisms and IPM systems.

For further information contact: Sarah Lynch, World Wildlife Fund, 1.202.778.9781, sarah.lynch@wwfus.org

¹See Pest Management at the Crossroads, Benbrook, C. et al., Consumers Union 1996.

*' World Wildlife Fund or Worldwide Fund for Nature, known worldwide by its panda logo, leads international efforts to protect the diversity of life on Earth. Now in its fourth decade, WWF works in more than 100 countries around the globe.

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Dr. Sarah Lynch

Address:
World Wildlife Fund
1250 24th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20037-1175

Phone: (202) 778-9781
Fax: (202) 530-0743
E-Mail: Sarah.Lynch@wwfus.org

Sarah Lynch is Director of World Wildlife Fund's Agriculture Pollution Prevention Program and is responsible for overseeing WWF's work on pesticide risk reduction and IPM measurement systems. Before joining WWF in June 1997 she worked in the USDA's Natural Resources and the Environment Division of the Economic Research Service on issues related to pesticide policy and measuring IPM adoption. Dr. Lynch is an agricultural economist by training having advanced degrees from Michigan State University and Cornell University.

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