The soybean cyst nematode (SCN) remains the most important, economically limiting threat to soybean growers in the North Central U.S., and yield losses will continue to increase in the near future. In recent years, an increase in the occurrence of 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 >25,000 field research plots 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). In addition, losses from other plant-parasitic nematodes and pathogens that interact with SCN deliver an economic hit to growers that limit profitability.

Eight 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. Recently, that mission has expanded to include other plant-parasitic nematodes that attack soybean and plant pathogens that interact with SCN. To date, partners include nine agrochemical companies, over two dozen universities and state, regional and national checkoff organizations. 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. To date, that leverage has built total support (direct and in-kind) for the SCN Coalition of nearly $15M (approximately $1.9M NCSRP, $2.2M USB, $1.3M private partner direct financial support, and $9.5M private partner in-kind support).

Since its launch, the SCN Coalition has generated more than 80 million potential impressions through agricultural media, more than 8 million potential impressions on social media and the ‘Let’s Talk Todes’ program generated over 2 million views. Between 2015 and 2020, an increase of 6% to 18% more U.S. soybean growers reported utilizing tools to actively manage SCN. Using conservative estimates, the economics value of the increase in active management is >$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 management tools. Additionally, the private and public sectors are making significant advancements in research, and we believe those advances need to be made more visible to growers in order to get them 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 to focus on the economics of SCN, research advances in SCN management, and continue to expand information on other nematodes and pathogens that interact with SCN.

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. 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 2024. 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. We propose updating The SCN Coalition University Experts website pages, allowing experts to incorporate information about Southern root-knot, reniform and lesion nematodes into their recommendations to advance active soybean-parasitic nematode management and protect soybean yields. This new content will be promoted via press releases and media relations, as well as the Coalition’s social media channels.

Despite great improvements in understanding and management, data suggests large numbers of growers can still improve their yield by incorporating active SCN management tools. In 2020, growers reported that SCN was costing them approximately 5.1 bu/ac. Data suggests that genetic rotation, crop rotation and seed treatment can reduce this number, thereby increasing grower profits. We will deliver current, relevant research-based information to growers, so they can make the best decisions for their farm to limit losses to SCN. The SCN Coalition is in an excellent position to continue to leverage NCSRP funds, which multiples the management messages to soybean growers increasing the impact of this program.