{"id":3009,"date":"2026-02-05T09:34:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T14:34:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/?p=3009"},"modified":"2026-02-07T10:33:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T15:33:12","slug":"baffour-awuah-shares-research-exploring-ipm-adoption-challenges-at-s-aaae","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/2026\/02\/baffour-awuah-shares-research-exploring-ipm-adoption-challenges-at-s-aaae\/","title":{"rendered":"Baffour-Awuah Shares Research Exploring IPM Adoption Challenges at S-AAAE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"Dennis<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the\u00a02026 Southern American Association for Agricultural Education Conference, held January 31-February 3 in Kentucky,\u00a0Dennis Baffour-Awuah<\/a>\u00a0delivered an\u00a0oral research presentation\u00a0from the\u00a0Cultivating Tomorrow\u2019s Orchard\u00a0project<\/a>, for which the\u00a0Lamm Lab\u00a0<\/strong>leads the human dimensions research. His presentation was titled\u00a0Adopters\u2019 Perspectives on the Gains and Struggles of IPM Implementation: A Focus Group Study in the Eastern United States<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study examined eastern peach and apple tree fruit growers\u2019 experiences with adopting Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices and the factors shaping sustained use. Guided by Diffusion of Innovations theory, the research drew on seven focus groups with 82 growers across the eastern United States to explore perceived benefits, challenges, and decision-making processes related to IPM adoption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The findings indicated growers recognized the relative advantage and compatibility of IPM, particularly its effectiveness and ecological benefits. However, adoption was often constrained by perceived complexity, economic costs, regulatory pressures, and limited opportunities for trialability and observability. The presentation highlighted the important role of extension education and agricultural communication in reducing complexity, supporting learning through demonstrations and peer exchange, and aligning IPM recommendations with growers\u2019 operational realities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cultivating Tomorrow’s Orchard<\/a> project is funded by USDA SCRI (Award #2024-51181-43213). Co-authors included social scientists, entomologists and extensionists from 7 universities and USDA ARS working collaboratively to serve apple and peach tree-fruit growers as they tackle pest challenges amidst a changing climate: Dr. Chin-Ling Lee<\/a>, Dr. Alexa Lamm<\/a>, Dr. Allison Byrd<\/a>, Dr. Gigi DiGiacamo, Dr. Jaime Pinero, Dr. Monique Olivera, Dr. Brett Blaauw<\/a>, Dr. Christelle Guedot, Dr. Anne Nielsen, Dr. Juliana Wilson, and Dr. Tracy Leskey<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the\u00a02026 Southern American Association for Agricultural Education Conference, held January 31-February 3 in Kentucky,\u00a0Dennis Baffour-Awuah\u00a0delivered an\u00a0oral research presentation\u00a0from the\u00a0Cultivating Tomorrow\u2019s Orchard\u00a0project, for which the\u00a0Lamm Lab\u00a0leads the human dimensions research. His presentation was titled\u00a0Adopters\u2019 Perspectives on the Gains and Struggles of IPM Implementation: A Focus Group Study in the Eastern United States. The study examined […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1005,"featured_media":3084,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,58,57,60],"tags":[10,62,36],"class_list":["post-3009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agproduction","category-integrated-pest-management","category-invasive-species","category-scicomm","tag-lamm","tag-baffour-awuah","tag-lamm-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1005"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3009"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3104,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3009\/revisions\/3104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.caes.uga.edu\/lammlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}