The Integrated Pest Management - Pest Information Platform for Extension and Education (ipmPIPE) was first conceptualized by USDA-APHIS during outbreaks of soybean aphid in the North Central U.S. during 2000-02. However, the ipmPIPE was not implemented until early 2005 when monitoring for soybean rust in North America became a priority. The ipmPIPE currently has three component parts: 1) Soybean aphid-PIPE, 2) Soybean rust-PIPE and 3) Legume-PIPE. The ipmPIPE now involves monitoring and reporting pests of soybean and various legume crops in 41 states, five Canadian provinces, and Mexico. Although information technology support for the ipmPIPE is state-of-the-art, the technology would fail without critical input from a host of support groups and individuals, especially Extension specialists and other scientists at Land Grant institutions, county Extension educators, crop consultants and producers. The ipmPIPE follows a traditional IPM template: 1) collect information, 2) analyze information, 3) make recommendations, 4) keep records, and 5) evaluation. Advances of the ipmPIPE over the existing IPM template include easy stakeholder access to national pest incidence and distribution data, disease forecasting, and state-specific control recommendations, through a public website, on a near-real time basis. The ipmPIPE has greatly enhanced communication among scientists and has facilitated the use of IPM in soybean. The ipmPIPE is very flexible and is amenable to other crop-pest combinations.
