The soybean cyst nematode (SCN) remains the most important, economically limiting threat to soybean growers in the North Central U.S., and yield losses due to SCN are increasing and will continue to increase in the near future. In recent years, an increase in aggressive SCN populations that can feed and reproduce on resistant varieties has been widely documented throughout the North Central United States (Faghihi et al. 2010, Howland et al. 2018, Niblack et al. 2003, Niblack et al. 2008). With only one readily available commercial source of resistance to SCN (PI 88788), this trend will continue and expose growers to levels of yield loss from SCN that have not occurred since the 1980’s. Evidence from 15 years of SCN-resistant variety evaluations demonstrates that a 23% yield reduction (14.1 bu/ac) is expected when PI 88788 has lost effectiveness (McCarville et al. 2017).

Six years ago, a public-private partnership called “The SCN Coalition” was formed, with the objective to help growers reduce their risk to the yield threat posed by the breakdown of SCN resistance by actively managing SCN. To date, partners include nine agrochemical companies, over two dozen universities and state, regional and national checkoff organizations. The SCN Coalition unified the SCN active management messaging among the partners and multiplied it with their media presence to deliver it to growers. Critically, development and success of The SCN Coalition is directly linked to support from the NCSRP. The NSCRP resources have been leveraged extensively to secure direct financial support from the United Soybean Board (USB) and private corporate partners that support complementary SCN Coalition activities and additional highly significant in-kind support from the private sector.

Since its launch, the Coalition has generated 31 million potential impressions through agricultural media and videos produced in the ‘Let’s Talk Todes’ program generated over 2M views. To measure the impacts of The SCN Coalition, the results of two national surveys of grower practices and grower awareness conducted in 2015 and 2020 were compared (95% confidence level). An increase of 6% to 18% more U.S. soybean growers reported utilizing tools to actively manage SCN. Using conservative estimates, the economics of the increase in active management is estimated at >$100M gains annually for U.S. soybean growers.

Despite great improvements in understanding and management, data suggests large numbers of growers (in most cases the majority) can still improve their yield by incorporating active SCN management tools. Additionally, the private and public sectors are making significant advancements in research, and we believe those advances need to be visible to growers in order to quickly adopt and economically benefit from their usage as they become available. In this proposal, we seek to build on the success of The SCN Coalition and focus on the economics of SCN and research advances in SCN management.

1. SCN Coalition Partner Relations and Recruitment.
2. SCN Coalition Management.
3. SCN Coalition Ongoing Communications.

For objective 1. Maintaining relationships with the nine current industry partners (BASF, Bayer, Corteva,
Growmark, Nufarm, Syngenta, UPL, Valent, Winfield United) and continued recruiting of new partners are critical for consistent and coordinated messaging, and sustaining financial support.
For objective 2. Funds will be used to support SCN Coalition leadership to participate in and facilitate core team and committee meetings and calls; to update Coalition training presentations and other educational materials as research progresses; to develop new educational materials as needed (i.e., PI mailings, banners and signage, online tracking tools, etc.) for SCN Coalition land-grant university members; and to continue consensus-building efforts and support for the feedback loop among all members of The SCN Coalition as it grows and evolves in 2023. These activities will include partners from checkoff organizations, industry and academic institutions.
For objective 3. Ongoing communications efforts include arranging print, radio and TV interviews for Coalition leaders in ag media outlets; cooperating with ag media outlets to provide custom SCN information and resources as requested; coordinating with Coalition leaders and other researchers to develop topics for news releases, articles, position papers, our monthly e-newsletter and three-times-weekly social media efforts; and outreach to existing and new potential media partners. Funds will also be used to create the “What’s your number” campaign targeting CCAs, agronomists and retailers, as well as soybean growers. Elements of this campaign include a press release and media outreach, working with public-private SCN soil sampling labs to compile data, reporting soil sample data weekly via a social media campaign, and providing public-private partners with promotional materials. Additionally, funds will be used to assure the website is being optimized effectively.

The soybean cyst nematode (SCN) remains the most important, economically limiting threat to soybean growers in the North Central U.S., and yield losses due to SCN are increasing and will continue to increase in the near future. The SCN crisis growers face is two-fold; the effectiveness of the PI88788 resistance is being reduced as the nematode adapts, and, there is relatively low grower awareness of the situation. Over the last 6 years, The SCN Coalition, a Public-Private Partnership, has moved the needle on active management of SCN, saving growers millions of dollars in economic loss. Specifically, the impacts of The SCN Coalition were determined using two national surveys of grower practices and grower awareness in 2015 and 2020 (95% confidence level). An increase of 6% to 18% more U.S. soybean growers reported utilizing tools to actively manage SCN. Using conservative estimates, the economics of the increase in active management is estimated at >$100M gains annually for U.S. soybean growers.
Despite great improvements in understanding and management, data suggests large numbers of growers (in most cases the majority) can still improve their yield by incorporating active SCN management tools. Additionally, the private and public sectors are making significant advancements in research, and we believe those advances need to be visible to growers in order to quickly adopt and economically benefit from their usage as they become available. In this proposal, we seek to build on the success of The SCN Coalition and focus on the economics of SCN and research advances in SCN management. We hope that the growers will save $100M+ more in prevention of yield loss due to SCN.

For objectives 1 and 2. SCN Partners Relations/Recruitment and SCN Coalition Management.
Success of these actions will be measured by 1) conceptual buy-in from industry partners, 2) dissemination of information to clientele and 3) financial commitments received (in-kind or direct). The timeline is continuous and visits are likely to occur throughout the fiscal year.
For objective 3. SCN Coalition Ongoing Communications. Success will be measured by
media impressions: share of SCN conversations, website traffic and social media impressions/retweets/etc. Press releases will be strategically timed around complementary leveraged events to multiply the message and magnify the impact.
Additional long-term objectives and KPI’s. Our new target is a significant increase in questions and components about active management of SCN (95% confidence) measured by market research in 2025. We also plan to lead an effort to update the National Soybean Nematode Strategic Plan (2023-2027), and ultimately, to increase active management of SCN.