Regional IPM Priorities
The North Central Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Center has identified four overarching pest management challenges that require sustained regional leadership, partnership, and coordination. Together, these challenges serve as the Center’s priorities for 2026-2030 and align regional pest management needs with national IPM goals.
Each priority represents an important and interconnected area of regional need. The North Central IPM Center works with partners across the North Central region to build capacity, share knowledge, develop solutions, and advance integrated pest management in each of these areas.
Four Priorities, One Regional IPM Strategy
These priorities are interconnected. Early detection helps prevent invasive pests from becoming established. Resistance monitoring helps preserve effective management tools. Data and decision-support systems help producers and pest management professionals determine when and how to act. Resilient production systems reduce vulnerability and strengthen the long-term sustainability of pest management.
Details About 2026–2030 Priorities
Emerging & Invasive Pest Response
Emerging and invasive pests threaten agricultural productivity, ecosystems, and food security across the North Central region. These threats include weeds, insects, pathogens, ticks, mosquitoes, livestock pests, and soilborne threats.
Our focus:
- Preparedness, early detection, and rapid response
- Pest surveillance and mapping
- Pest Alerts and educational resources
- Multistate information exchange and coordination
- Coordination with diagnostic and regulatory systems
Anticipated Impact:
Regional capacity for coordinated preparedness and timely detection, communication, and response to emerging pest threats.
Resistance Management
Weeds, insects and plant pathogens can develop resistance to herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides, reducing the effectiveness and useful life of these important management tools. Pests can overcome genetic resistance in crop varieties and hybrids, threatening one of the most effective and sustainable foundations of IPM.
Our focus:
- Resistance surveillance and early detection
- Monitoring changes in pest populations and crop resistance effectiveness
- Stewardship education and training
- Decision-support systems
- Integrated resistance management strategies
- Preserving the effectiveness of pesticides and genetic resistance
Anticipated Impact:
Sustained regional capacity to monitor and manage resistance and broader adoption of integrated strategies and practices that preserve the long-term effectiveness of pesticides, resistant varieties and hybrids, and other management tools.
Resilient Production Systems
Productive agricultural systems depend on ecological functions that support long-term adaptability and resilience.
Our focus:
- Biological control
- Pollinator stewardship
- Responsible pesticide use and stewardship
- Habitat management
- Soilborne pest management
- Soil health
- Innovative and creative approaches that contribute to productive and adaptive agroecosystems
Anticipated Impact:
Adoption and implementation of pest management strategies and practices that integrate prevention, diversification, and ecological principles, promote responsible pesticide stewardship, and support the long-term adaptability and resilience of production systems.
Data-Driven Pest Risk Assessment and Decision Support
Continued development and dissemination of monitoring technologies, forecasting models, and analytical tools are needed to support timely, evidence-based decision-making by producers and pest management professionals.
Our focus:
- Pest forecasting and predictive models
- Risk assessment and decision-support systems
- Economic analyses and decision thresholds
- Data integration and visualization
- Data science, predictive analytics, and machine learning
- Development, validation, and delivery of decision-support tools
Anticipated Impact:
Broader access to and use of data-driven pest risk assessment and decision-support systems to guide timely, effective, and economically sound management decisions and targeted interventions based on documented risk.
Our Priorities in Action
The North Central IPM Center actively supports IPM in our region. Learn more about our activities and how you can stay informed.