IPM Field Technician

The Program: The RCE Vegetable IPM program is an educational/service program for commercial agriculture in New Jersey. Driven by environmental monitoring and field scouting, and relying on up-to-date research, the program strives to help growers produce high quality vegetables while minimizing pesticide inputs. The program also develops real-time GIS-based predictive models of pest activity and seeks to maintain populations of beneficial insects, incorporate biological control tactics where practical, utilize reduced risk pesticides and employ resistance management strategies. The program works cooperatively with researchers in demonstrating new technologies and measuring the impact of reduced risk pest management practices. 

Job Duties: Technicians are responsible for regular data collection (2 times per week per site), identifying pest and disease presence, identifying beneficial arthropods, completing IPM reports for participating growers, providing weekly summaries of insect catch data for supervisors, and collecting plant tissue samples when needed. Technicians may share duties on field research projects with entomology and plant pathology specialists. 

Desired Qualifications: Technicians should have coursework in environmental studies, agriculture, biology, chemistry, entomology, and/or plant pathology. Competence in MS Excel and web-based Google software is helpful. During the growing season, technicians spend almost 100% of their time outside in field conditions. Candidates must want to work in the field and learn new concepts that contribute to the well-being of agriculture in New Jersey. The data taken by technicians is used to manage over $100 million of crop value, reduce the environmental impact of traditional agricultural systems, and minimize non-point source pollution.