Citrus Industry Stakeholder Engagement Meeting
On Friday, March 13, 2020, several participants joined our project team for a 2-hour Zoom video/audio conference call to learn about CitrusSprayEx Expert System and our project. CitrusSprayEx is a decision support tool for planning and evaluating spray application in citrus. The project is focused on disseminating and further developing this tool to improve agricultural productivity while potentially reducing the frequency of applications.
The meeting was intended for people involved with the citrus industry and/or concerned with spray application operations and environmental health and safety, including growers, owners, supervisors, PCA's, researchers, educators, regulators, and other industry stakeholders. One objective was to gather initial stakeholder assessment and input needed to guide the project to better serve the industry need.
Principal Investigator (PI) Dr. Peter Ako Larbi, UCCE Agricultural Application Engineering Specialist at the Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Parlier, CA, moderated the meeting. He gave an hour-and-a-half presentation covering the project goals and planned activities as well as demonstrations of how to use the expert system. The presentation was followed by a half-hour discussion session where he was joined by Key Personnel Dr. Elizabeth Grafton-Cardwell, Director, Lindcove Research and Extension Center and Dr. Greg Douhan, UCCE Area Citrus Advisor, Cooperative Extension Tulare County.
Participants engaged by polls and chats. They presented questions, suggestions, and feedback via chats during the discussion session in response to the presentation and demonstration. Continuing education units were applied from the California Department of Pesticide Regulation.
View the agenda.