Author: Ricardo Bessin
Planning Unit: Entomology
Major Program: Chemical Management
Outcome: Initial Outcome
With the Covid-19 shutdown, pesticide certfications that expired in 2019 were extended through the end of 2020. Private applicators were granted a fourth year as county extension offices that normally would retrain these applicators in the spring were shut down due to the pandemic. However with the reopening of the offices in 2021, there was a doubling of the number of private applicators needing training. In a typical year, 3000 to 4000 applicators need training and new certifcations to purchase the pesticides they need to farm. This spring that number was doubled. However, despite limitations on group sizes for training and the need to continue social distancing, county agents were able to train and certifiy more private applicators than they had ever done in a sinlge year.
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