SAES-422 Multistate Research Activity Accomplishments Report
Sections
Status: Approved
Basic Information
- Project No. and Title: NRSP4 : Facilitating Registration of Pest Management Technology for Specialty Crops and Specialty Uses
- Period Covered: 01/01/2025 to 12/31/2025
- Date of Report: 03/25/2026
- Annual Meeting Dates: 03/03/2026 to 03/05/2026
Participants
Participants in the Joint IR-4 Commodity Liaison Committee (CLC) and Project Management Committee (PMC) Spring 2026 meeting included representatives from IR-4 Headquarters, State Agricultural Experiment Stations, USDA agencies, and stakeholder organizations. IR-4 Project Management Committee and Leadership: Matt Hengel (Chair, Western Region), Doug Buhler (Administrative Advisor, NCR), Marcel Holyoak (Administrative Advisor, WR), Steve Lommel (Administrative Advisor, HQ), Mary Hausbeck (Regional Director, NCR), Liwei Gu (Regional Director, SOR), Simon Zebelo (Regional Director, NER), Lina Quesada-Ocampo (IR-4 Executive Director), Alvin Simmons (USDA-ARS), Christopher Philips (USDA-NIFA). Commodity Liaison Committee (CLC): Michael Aerts, Zach Bagley, Michael Bledsoe, Maggie Elliot, Atticus Finger, Bill Franze, Bob Jones, Bob Kaldunski, Pete Nelson, Rachel Roberts, Steven Salisbury, Michelle Starke, Johnathan Saranger, Amy Upton, Todd Scholz (Chair, outgoing), Keith Pitts (Vice Chair, outgoing). IR-4 Headquarters and Staff Participants/Presenters: Alice Axtell, Bill Barney, Jimmy Byrtus, Debbie Carpenter, Krystal Chojnacki, Christina Dineen, Cristina Marconi, Johanna Mazlo, Thomas Pike, Hannah Ross, Josh Kindel. Federal and External Partners: Julie Van Alstine (USDA-OPMP), Billy Smith (U.S. EPA Office of Pesticide Programs), Dirk Drost (Minor Use Foundation), Cindy Smith (Gowan Company), David Beaudreau (DCLRS and Friends of IR-4).
Summary of Minutes
The Joint IR-4 Commodity Liaison Committee (CLC) and Project Management Committee (PMC) meeting (March 3–5, 2026) focused on program updates, priority setting, stakeholder engagement, and operational decisions supporting IR-4 activities.
Key Decisions and Approvals:
– Approved minutes from Fall 2025 and special PMC meetings.
– Approved extension of Track C CLC membership through 2030, with minor revisions.
– Approved renaming of the SOAR Award to the Jerry Baron SOAR Award.
– Approved reallocation of funds ($68,890 from Integrated Solutions and $110,000 from Product Performance) to address contract laboratory obligations.
– Approved updates to scheduling of upcoming meetings (Summer PMC, NRPM, and Fall PMC).
Consensus Actions:
– Maintain disciplinary separation during the Food Use Workshop.
– Increase transparency regarding analytical complexity of projects and implement pre-review by IR-4 chemists.
– Revise the Project Clearance Request process to better capture project rationale and eliminate routine verbal pitches unless requested.
– Advance development of National SOPs for Decommissioning Sites and Amending Analytical Summary Reports.
Elections and Leadership Updates:
– Elected new CLC leadership: Jonathan Saranger (Chair), Amy Upton (Vice Chair), and Rachel Roberts (Government Relations Committee Chair).
– Acknowledged leadership transition with the appointment of Dr. Lina Quesada-Ocampo as IR-4 Executive Director.
Discussion Highlights (Informing Future Actions):
– Addressing funding constraints, laboratory backlogs, and analytical capacity limitations.
– Ongoing modernization of data collection systems (eFDB) within existing funding constraints.
– Continued coordination with USDA-OPMP, EPA, and industry partners on regulatory priorities and policy developments.
The meeting concluded with action items assigned to IR-4 HQ staff to continue modernizing data systems in collaboration with regional partners, while balancing funding limitations, and to further evaluate integration of Integrated Solutions or similar project types into future programming as resources allow.
Accomplishments
Activities and Milestones:
NRSP-4 supported the national coordination and management of IR-4 research activities, including stakeholder-driven priority setting, research planning, data management, and regulatory support. Key activities included convening stakeholder workshops (Industry Technology Session, Food Use Workshop, and Environmental Horticulture Workshop), facilitating Requests for Assistance, and coordinating multi-state research aligned with EPA regulatory requirements.
Milestones achieved during this reporting period included:
– Completion of national priority-setting processes for 2026 research projects.
– Implementation of 4 new National Standard Operating Procedures.
– Progress in reducing analytical laboratory backlogs.
– Launch of an internal intranet platform to enhance coordination across regions and programs.
Outputs:
IR-4 generated substantial research and regulatory outputs across food crop and environmental horticulture programs:
– 9 tolerance petitions submitted to EPA covering 44 requests for assistance, supporting crops such as cranberry, lettuce, spinach, dill, strawberry, blueberry, peach, plum, cherry, citrus, hops, and beans, as well as crop groups including leafy greens, legumes, and tropical fruits. These efforts directly benefit growers across key production states including Wisconsin (cranberry), California (leafy greens, tree fruit, citrus), Florida (citrus, vegetables), North Carolina (sweetpotato, specialty crops), Michigan and New Jersey (blueberry), and Oregon and Washington (hops and cherries).
– 2 biopesticide submissions addressing critical issues, including Varroa mite control in honeybee colonies (supporting pollination systems nationwide) and citrus greening (Huanglongbing), a major threat to citrus production in states such as Florida, California, and Texas.
– 346 residue trials contributing to 37 magnitude of residue studies.
– 149 efficacy/crop safety trials supporting 79 product performance projects.
– 15 field trials contributing to 17 Integrated Solutions projects.
– 13 research summaries supporting regulatory decisions, based on 4,435 field and greenhouse trials.
Additional outputs included stakeholder-facing communications (annual reports, workshops, and outreach materials), database updates, and regulatory data packages submitted to EPA and other agencies.
Short-term Outcomes:
These outputs resulted in measurable short-term outcomes for stakeholders:
– 3 new pesticide tolerances established by EPA, enabling new product uses on crops such as cranberry and lettuce, directly benefiting growers in major production regions including Wisconsin and Massachusetts (cranberry) and California and Arizona (leafy greens) by expanding access to effective pest management tools.
– Expanded access to pest management tools for specialty crop growers.
– Continued progress toward registrations for reduced-risk and biopesticide technologies.
– Improved efficiency in research coordination and data management through SOP implementation and intranet deployment.
– Increased stakeholder engagement and participation in priority-setting processes.
Linkages and Collaboration:
NRSP-4 activities demonstrated strong internal and external linkages:
– Internal: Coordination across IR-4 regional programs (NCR, NER, SOR, WR), HQ leadership, and multiple research platforms (Food Crop, Environmental Horticulture, Integrated Solutions, and Biopesticide Regulatory Support).
– External: Active collaboration with USDA-NIFA, USDA-ARS, USDA-FAS, EPA, commodity groups, registrants, and international partners.
– Stakeholder engagement through the Commodity Liaison Committee (CLC), Friends of IR-4, and workshop participants ensured that research priorities reflect grower needs.
These linkages were critical in maintaining program productivity despite challenges such as funding delays, federal shutdown impacts, and staffing constraints at the EPA.
Stakeholder-Relevant Impacts:
The program continued to address stakeholder priorities by:
– Providing solutions to emerging pest challenges (e.g., mites, invasive pests, and diseases such as Alternaria).
– Supporting specialty crop production through access to safe and effective pest management tools.
– Advancing integrated and reduced-risk pest management strategies.
Plans for the Coming Year:
IR-4 will continue to prioritize and coordinate multi-state research aligned with stakeholder needs and regulatory requirements. Emphasis will be placed on improving analytical capacity, further reducing laboratory backlogs, enhancing data systems and communication platforms, and expanding support for biopesticide and integrated solutions research. Continued engagement with federal partners and stakeholders will ensure alignment with evolving regulatory and production challenges.
Impacts
- NRSP-4-supported activities are foundational to the IR-4 Project’s ability to function as a coordinated national program. Unlike other funding sources that primarily support field trials and laboratory research, NRSP-4 specifically supports the national leadership, data systems, stakeholder engagement, and regulatory coordination infrastructure housed at IR-4 Headquarters. These activities are essential for integrating multi-state research, aligning stakeholder priorities, and delivering regulatory outcomes that no single institution or region could achieve independently. 
- Economic Impacts: By supporting the national coordination infrastructure, NRSP-4 enables IR-4 to deliver substantial economic benefits. The IR-4 Project contributes an estimated $8.97 billion annually to U.S. GDP and supports over 111,000 jobs. NRSP-4-supported coordination alone is estimated to contribute approximately $216 million annually, representing a return of over $500 per dollar invested. These impacts are only achievable through the centralized management, planning, and regulatory support functions funded by NRSP-4. 
- Enabling National Research and Regulatory Outcomes: NRSP-4 funding supports the coordination of national priority-setting processes, including stakeholder workshops and Requests for Assistance, ensuring that research investments address the most critical pest management gaps. It also supports database systems that track research progress and disseminate results, as well as research planning activities that ensure studies meet EPA regulatory standards. These functions directly enable the successful submission of tolerance petitions, biopesticide registrations, and other regulatory packages. 
- Impact on Biopesticides and Emerging Technologies: NRSP-4 plays a critical role in advancing biopesticides and public-sector innovations by supporting regulatory coordination and consultation services. These activities help technologies developed by land-grant universities and USDA-ARS move through the regulatory process and into the marketplace. Reductions in funding have already resulted in reductions in effort in this area, limiting the program’s capacity to support biopesticide registrations and increasing the likelihood that promising technologies will not reach growers or will do so at higher cost. 
- Stakeholder and Agricultural Impacts: NRSP-4-supported coordination ensures that stakeholder input from all states is systematically incorporated into research prioritization and execution. Through national workshops, the Commodity Liaison Committee, and database-driven processes, stakeholders directly influence which pest management solutions are developed. This results in improved access to effective, reduced-risk tools that address emerging pest pressures, resistance issues, and regulatory constraints across all regions.
- Environmental and Public Health Impacts: By enabling coordinated development and registration of reduced-risk pesticides and biopesticides, NRSP-4-supported activities contribute to reduced pesticide exposure, improved environmental stewardship, and more sustainable pest management systems. Integrated Solutions efforts, temporarily paused due to funding constraints with evaluation ongoing, further supported system-based approaches that reduced reliance on single chemistries and mitigated resistance development.
- Indicators of Impact: – Number of national priority-setting activities conducted – Number of regulatory submissions enabled through coordinated research planning – Utilization and expansion of IR-4 databases and stakeholder platforms – Number of biopesticide and reduced-risk technologies advanced toward registration – Stakeholder participation and engagement metrics
- Leveraged Resources: NRSP-4 funding serves as a critical catalyst that enables the effective use of approximately $15 million annually from USDA-NIFA, $3.1 million from USDA-ARS (goes directly to USDA-ARS partners), and additional industry and in-kind contributions. Without NRSP-4-supported coordination, the efficiency and impact of these investments would be significantly diminished. 
- Overall Impact: NRSP-4 provides the essential national coordination infrastructure that underpins the IR-4 Project. Its support enables the integration of multi-state research, accelerates regulatory approvals, and ensures that specialty crop growers have access to effective and sustainable pest management tools. Sustained NRSP-4 funding is critical to maintaining this national capability and to advancing emerging priorities such as biopesticides and innovative pest management technologies.
Grants, Contracts & Other Resources Obtained
National Research Support Program (NRSP-4); Ag Innovation / Experiment Station Committee on Organization and Policy (Hatch Act Funds); 10/2025–09/2026; $2,405,910 ($481,182/year for 5 years). *This award
USDA–ARS Cooperative Agreement: Quality Assurance Services and Support for IR-4 Minor Use Pesticide; USDA–ARS; 09/2025–09/2027; $77,520
IR-4 Minor Crop Pest Management; USDA–NIFA; 08/2025–07/2029; $55,497,600
Publications
Ceseski, A., T. Guan, R. Vulchi, R. Batts, K. Arnold, C. Baez Vega, W. Brim-DeForest. (2025). Herbicide options for cultivated wild rice (Zizania palustris) in California. Weed Technology. https://doi.org/10.1017/wet.2025.10067
McFall, A., Reyes-Punongbayan, R. L., & Hengel, M. (2025). Analysis of flutianil and OC56635 residues in hemp Cannabis matrices by LC-MS/MS. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.4c05103
Massie, S. T., Richardson, B. J., Patel, J. S., & Gent, D. H. (2025). Evaluation of fungicides for hop powdery mildew, Toppenish, Washington, 2024. Plant Health Progress. https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/10.1094/PHP-12-24-0145-PDMR
Miranda, J.W.A, L. M. Sosnoskie, B. D. Hanson, T. E. Besancon, S. Chaudhari, R. B. Batts, and M. L. Moretti. (2025). Differential quinclorac tolerance in grapevines depends on precipitation and edaphic factors. Weed Technology. https://doi.org/10.1017/wet.2025.10065.
Searer-Jones, K. (2025, March). IR-4 working behind the scenes for specialty crop growers. Specialty Crop Grower. https://specialtycropgrower.com/specialty-crop-grower-magazine-ir-4/
Shrestha, G., Merkle, A., Pandey, S., & Axtell, A. (2025). Evaluation of biological and synthetic insecticides for control of Lepidopteran caterpillar complex in CBD hemp, 2024. Arthropod Management Tests, 50(1), tsaf032. https://doi.org/10.1093/amt/tsaf032
Sosnoskie, L.M., R. B. Batts, and T. Besancon. 2025. An evaluation of targeted spraying for reducing herbicide use in highbush blueberry. HortTechnology, 35:214-222. https://doi.org/10.21273/HORTTECH05555-24.