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October 22nd, 2001
CONTACT: Linda McCandless, llm3@cornell.edu, 315-787-2417
by John Zakour
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Andrew Landers
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GENEVA, NY: Andrew Landers has joined Cornell University's entomology department at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, NY, as a senior extension associate and pesticide application technology specialist. Landers, who was formerly with Cornell's department of agricultural & biological engineering in Ithaca (ABEN), holds a joint appointment with entomology and BEE in Ithaca. BEE is the new incarnation of ABEN, and stands for biological and environmental engineering.
When asked about his move, Landers said, "I came to Geneva to be nearer to my growers and have better laboratory facilities. All my growers work with fruits and vegetables and most of them are located along the Rte. 90 corridor-not in Ithaca. I also have a state-of-the-art spray facility in Geneva which I didn't have in Ithaca."
The move will facilitate the research projects Landers conducts with Cornell faculty at the Experiment Station, particularly Harvey Reissig, Art Agnello and Bill Turechek in apples, and Greg English-Loeb and Wayne Wilcox in grapes.
"We have a tripartite research effort to evaluate disease and insect activity as well as pesticide spray efficacy. Spray is no good if it doesn't control the disease or kill the bug, and you need to know the biology of the disease or the bugs in order to be able to plan a viable spray program," Landers said.
"We are extremely fortunate to have a scientist come to Geneva with the skills, expertise and experience in agricultural engineering that Dr. Landers has," said Wendell Roelofs, chairman of the entomology department. "A few years ago, I was surprised that Cornell was able to attract this world-class ag engineer from the UK to the agricultural and biological engineering department in Ithaca. Faculty at Geneva immediately started to collaborate with him because his research and extension activities centered around aspects of crop protection that are key to many programs here at Geneva. When the Ithaca department changed their focus and took 'agriculture' out of their name, it became obvious that he and Geneva would gain by having him move to Geneva. We are particularly pleased to have him associated with our department. He adds professionally to our programs and is also a wonderful person with a great sense of humor. Although he is located in our department, he collaborates with programs across the campus on various aspects of pesticide application technology," said Roelofs.
When asked about Landers' contributions in the area, grape program extension educator Timothy Martinson said, "Before Andrew arrived, spray technology in the Finger Lakes grape industry hadn't changed much since the 1960s. Although Cornell had an active research effort, little new information was filtering out to growers." Landers has introduced the industry to a variety of machines and tools for reducing drift and increasing spray deposition. He has organized a very effective extension effort, bringing sprayer manufacturers who have new technology together with growers at numerous field days and talks.
"Growers appreciate his practical demonstrations of sprayer performance, his unique sense of humor and speaking style, and his efforts to provide growers with inexpensive techniques to retrofit existing sprayers, making them more effective," said Martinson. Since Landers introduced his drift-reducing spray deflector at last winter's grape conference, at least five growers have fabricated and installed them on their sprayers. "Andrew was also fortunate to arrive at a time when improving profitability in the industry made growers more receptive to investing in new technology," said Martinson.
Landers studied agriculture at the Royal Agricultural College, in Cirencester, England, and Agricultural Engineering at Cranfield University. He studied for his Ph.D. at the University of Bath. He was elected a Fellow of the Institution of Agricultural Engineers in 1993.
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Further information about Landers' spray deflector may be found at http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/pubs/press/current/landers
