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A lifetime in Integrated Pest Management (IPM) to tackle crop pests for improved livelihoods for the world’s smallholder farmers and greater global food security has been celebrated at an international symposium held in San Diego, California, USA.
Dr Ulrich Kuhlmann, CABI’s Executive Director, Global Operations, and Chief Scientist, has been honoured with an International IPM Lifetime Achievement Award of Excellence at the11th International IPM Symposium held to recognize people who have made outstanding achievements in IPM adoption, implementation, and sustainability.
The symposium is a premier global event for presenting and learning about the latest IPM advancements in agriculture, communities and natural areas as well as being an outstanding networking and professional development event.
Experience in the field of development collaboration
Dr Kuhlmann, who joined CABI at its Swiss Centre in Delémont in 1997, has over 25 years’ experience in the field of research and development collaboration, including the use of multi-stakeholder approaches to promote sustainable agricultural production.
This has included the management of CABI’s first global programme Plantwise which – now evolved to PlantwisePlus – empowers smallholder farmers to manage evolving plant health threats, increase their incomes, improve food security and safety, and reduce biodiversity loss.
Dr Kuhlmann has also spearheaded various other projects, programmes and products in plant/crop health and sustainable agriculture, for example, he co-created and directed the Master of Advanced Studies in Integrated Crop Management in collaboration with the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland from which 66 students across 22 countries graduated.
For example, he led the creation and launch of theCABI BioProtection Portal and continues to oversee its ongoing development as the largest free resource for biological plant protection which is marking its fifth birthday with nearly 2 million users across 48 countries. The portal is a key resource which helps users identify, source, and apply biological crop protection products to combat crop pests which can impact upon livelihoods and the ability to ensure local, regional, and national food security.
Various technical and organisational training roles and consultations
Dr Kuhlmann’s experience also includes various technical and organisational training roles in numerous countries worldwide. He has also been involved in many in-country partner consultations/meetings, centred on CABI’s Member Country input into its Medium-Term Strategy and development of other recent initiatives such as CABI’s pesticide risk reduction offering.
His research on the biology, ecology, behaviour, and host specificity of entomophagous insects has seen him investigate pests including apple ermine moth, European apple sawfly, cherry bark tortrix, bertha armyworm, clover root weevils, cabbage seedpod weevil, western corn rootworm, rape blossom pollen beetle, cabbage root maggot, and Lygus plant bugs. During his research, Dr Kuhlmann has supervised numerous international MSc and PhD students from various universities across North America and Europe.
He has been the lead or co-author of many technical dossiers, annual research reports, scientific publications, and newsletters, and has presented at numerous national and international conferences, meetings, and symposia.
Dr Kuhlmann is Co-Director of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) China – CABI Joint Laboratory for Biosafety, Beijing, and the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) – CABI Joint Laboratory.
He is also a CABI representative of the multi-national organizations which have guest status to the Group of the G20 Chief Scientists of the Ministries of Agriculture.
Delighted to have been honoured
Dr Kuhlmann said, “I am delighted to have been honoured by the International IPM Symposium with the International IPM Lifetime Achievement Award of Excellence which is really testament to the many years of successful collaboration with a range of CABI colleagues, international scientists, in-country partners, donors and sponsors, member country representatives, private sector organisations and smallholder farmers themselves.”
“None of our successes in sustainable agricultural development have been achieved in isolation and I am forever indebted to past and future ongoing collaboration to help more smallholders grow more and lose less to crop pests amid a multitude of challenges including climate change.”
The International IPM Achievement Awards celebrate individuals and teams who have achieved excellence by fully supporting the IPM roadmap, garnering stakeholders to help with program implementation, team building, and increasing IPM adoption.
As part of Dr Kuhlmann’s award, he was invited to deliver a presentation on his overall career in IPM and inspire the symposium attendees to continue their good work in their respective countries.
He spoke about the value of extension services in technology and information transfer to lift people out of poverty as well as its value to the implementation of IPM. Dr Kuhlmann also shared success of the Plantwise programme including efforts to enhance agro-input dealer performance through compliance criteria linked to agreed standards.
Finally, he spoke about the CABI BioProtection Portal including its educational area with information on biological control and IPM through blogs, resources and e-learning courses.
Another award given out at the symposium was an International IPM Award of Excellence – Teams which went to Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada’s National Insect Pest & Weed Biocontrol Program.
This team is led by Dr Kuhlmann’s former PhD student Tara Gariepy who is today a permanent employee of AAFC London Ontario and Scientific Advisor to the CABI Canada Liaison Officer Marcos Alvarez.
Dr Tim Haye, Head Arthropod Biological Control at CABI’s centre in Switzerland, is a member of this team demonstrating and showcasing great collaboration between AAFC and CABI.
Additional information
Main image: Dr Ulrich Kuhlmann – recipient of an International IPM Lifetime Achievement Award of Excellence at the 11th International IPM Symposium.
International IPM Lifetime Achievement Award of Excellence
Award applications were evaluated based on the USDA NIFA IPM Roadmap. This document, developed in 2002 and revised in 2018 by the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA) and its stakeholders, provides direction for people who specialize in integrated pest management (IPM) through research, use of new technology and measurement of success in management of all types of pests, including but not limited to agricultural, structural, veterinary, ornamental, forest and public health pests. The International IPM Achievement Award of Excellence celebrate individuals and teams who have achieved excellence by fully supporting the IPM roadmap, garnering stakeholders to help with program implementation, team building, and increasing IPM adoption.
The evaluation committee was headed by Janet Hurley, Texas A&M University, and co-chairs were Shannah Whithaus, University of California, Deborah Grantham, Cornell University and Dawn Gouge, University of Arizona.
You can find out more about the nomination process here.
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