AGRIBUSINESS ASSOCIATION OF IOWA (AAI) FOUNDATION TO PRESENT $25,000 TO SUPPORT IOWA JOINING ONLINE SENSITIVE CROP AND APIARY REGISTRY PROGRAM
DES MOINES – Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey and representatives from the Agribusiness Association of Iowa (AAI) Foundation will announce $25,000 in financial support from the foundation to assist Iowa in joining FieldWatch, Inc., a non-profit company that operates DriftWatch™ and BeeCheck™ – voluntary online sensitive (specialty) crop and apiary registry programs.
The announcement will take place on Wednesday, April 6 at 11 a.m. in the Wallace Building lobby, 502 E. 9th St. in Des Moines.
The funds will cover an initial one-time license fee of $24,500 and the remaining $500 will be used to purchase signage. Ongoing annual maintenance fees to participate in the program will be covered by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.
When the site becomes operational later this summer it will replace the Sensitive Crop Directory currently operated by the Department.
The details of the event follow here:
Who: Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey
Joel Brinkmeyer, AAI Foundation
Where: Wallace Building lobby, 502 E 9th St., Des Moines
When: 11: 00 a.m., Wednesday, April 6, 2016
What: Presentation of $25,000 check to the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship to support
joining FieldWatch, Inc.
How: For more information, please contact Dustin Vande Hoef with the Iowa Department of Agriculture at 515-
281-3375 or Dustin.VandeHoef@IowaAgriculture.gov.
FieldWatch, Inc., is a non-profit company that operates DriftWatch™ and BeeCheck™ – voluntary online sensitive (specialty) crop and apiary registry programs. Originally created by Purdue University’s Agriculture and Biological Engineering Department in 2008, Purdue collaborated with other agricultural stakeholders to create FieldWatch, Inc., in December of 2012. The programs have been adopted by 13 state departments of agriculture and a Canadian province. The DriftWatch™ program is used by producers of sensitive crops and also for any apiary sites they may have. The BeeCheck™ program is used by apiarists (beekeepers only), but entries from both programs are available as combined databases to pesticide applicators and other end users. More information can be found by visiting http://www.fieldwatch.com/home.html .
Mailing Address: IDALS, Wallace State Office Building, 502 E. 9th Street, Des Moines, IA 50319: PH: 515-281-5321