The International Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Symposium is held every three years, and the venue rotates in different places. This year was the 11th time and the event happened in a city on the Pacific coast of California, San Diego, from March 3 to 6, 2025. Emily Kraus, Small Farms and Specialty Crops Advisor Fresno and Madera counties and I were able to join.
Meet & Greet
More than 400 attendees from countries of different continents like Canada, China, India, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, Switzerland, Thailand and the United States (including Puerto Rico), joined the symposium. Scientists, students, industry, government agency and policy experts shared their research covering in all aspects of integrated pest management. The three-day event was full of interesting programs with a variety of topics: IPM in federal government, IPM in housing, new and data driven IPM technologies, management strategies for sustainable crop production, specialty crops IPM, bringing IPM to new and underserved audiences, climate benefits in agriculture, teaching IPM through innovation and many more. The symposiums included presentations or posters. Dr. James Jay Farrar, the director of the University of California Statewide IPM Program, gave the symposium's welcoming keynote address followed by IPM outstanding awards program. I had the opportunity to meet, greet and share research and extension experiences with researchers around the world as well as UCANR fellows who attended the symposium too.
Building IPM Collaborations
Our team also had a chance to meet with Dr. Francis Reay-Jones (Professor, Clemson University, South Carolina) and Dr. Blake Wilson (Associate Professor, Louisiana State University, Louisiana). We discussed future research plans on Mexican Rice Borer (MRB) in California Central Valley on lemongrass. Our goals are to study the efficacy of insecticides and determine the biology and expansion of MRB in the region during the lemongrass growing season. The professors also shared their experience and research findings along with technical barriers of MRB research on rice and sugarcane in the South and Gulf Coast states.
First Time Experience!
Although I have been attending different symposiums and conferences throughout my career, joining the International IPM symposium was my first time experience. I enjoyed the whole event joining the program as much as I could to learn interesting topics covering IPM strategies in different approaches of policy and regulation updates, crop sustainability, environmental impacts, and food safety. I also appreciated the experience of collaborating and networking with professionals around the globe while finding pleasure in the beauty of San Diego's rich biodiversity with cold and some rainy days.
Acknowledgement
The UC IPM program was greatly acknowledged for giving me the opportunity to join this Symposium.