尽管许多国家正在与第二波 COVID-19 感染作斗争并恢复更严格的封锁条件，但现场试验必须继续进行。这是一篇讨论田间试验和独立研究对农业的重要性的文章的第二部分。在我们的 第一篇，我们专注于大学正在做的工作。现在，我们转向研究小组，了解过去一年中影响他们的考验和磨难，以及他们如何看待他们在这个前所未有的时期的最重要的工作。
研究机构
我们采访了国家研究主任 Frank Sances 博士 Ag Metrics 集团公司 和 Roger Batts，实地研究总监 NCSU IR-4 实地研究中心 以及 IR-4 项目的首席杂草科学生物学家，探讨为什么田间试验和独立研究必须仍然是农业综合企业的核心重点，以及他们从 2020 年的不寻常性质中获得的见解。
“Each field study targets a question regarding a product, a potential market, effectiveness, environmental issues, or safety in use,” Sances says.. “We have been doing this work since 1980 and have come to understand how essential, accurate, and timely data are to manufacturers of crop protection and other farm products. The adage that ‘decisions make themselves when enough is known’ is clearly the case with agricultural product development and stewardship, and in this respect, the field trial is key to management’s decision-making process.”
巴茨呼应了这种情绪。
“I consider conducting field trials that help identify safe and effective pest control products in specialty crops to be paramount,” he says. “With increasing scrutiny on existing products, these efforts are essential in providing specialty crop producers with viable options in situations where current products may be lost or restricted.”
话虽如此，Sances 指出，保护员工也是一个关键问题，一些员工不得不远程工作，而另一些员工则在锁定高峰期在现场提供单独的办公室。
“The COVID-19 pandemic was most disruptive during manufacturers’ spring 2020 trial placement period,” he says. “Many universities and USDA field stations had shut down at this time, sent the scientific staff home to work remotely, and stopped accepting new projects at their labs. At the same time, many CROs laid off or furloughed employees in anticipation of a downturn in the research business.
“By contrast, since we started early with our policies and crisis management activities, we had pre-purchased planting supplies, prepared land early for planting, firmed up off-site projects with cooperators, and rotated lab employees to night shifts or separate rooms to continue their work. We also had notified clients of our intent to continue business as usual and offered help with their difficult to place experiments,” he adds.
对于巴茨来说，大流行并未对他的田间试验产生重大影响。
“我的每一次实地试验的细节都提交给了我们的大学行政部门，并经过了彻底的审查。我所有的试验都获得了批准，尽管一些早期的试验在批准来得太晚而无法进行时不得不重新安排。特殊作物中额外作物保护剂注册的重要性、这些试验进行的方式有些孤立，以及试验失败导致的注册延迟可能对种植者产生长期影响，”Batts 说。
根据 Sances 的说法，大流行导致的另一个考虑因素是劳动力供应问题。
“Field labor was in short supply in many farming districts in 2020, but we are fortunate in that we provide housing on our key field stations to both biologists and farm techs,” he says. “Every year we actively move these individuals around the country where they are most needed. By March 1, 2020, we had all needed field labor and onsite agronomic staff to proceed with planting Florida and California research programs. This worked well as our Midwest stations did not need labor as early in the season and initiated their planting and research protocols much later.”
Batts 确实承认，由于 COVID-19，他的 IR-4 项目在全国范围内遇到了一些挫折。
“根据某些机构实地研究的审批程序，及时启动试验存在一些困难。测试物质的交付和接收也存在问题，这取决于一些注册人和一些研究机构的 COVID 驱动政策。这两种情况都导致一些试验被推迟到今年 [2021]，”他说。
对于 Sances 而言，Ag Metrics Group 在 2021 年及以后处于有利地位。
“让我们来到这里的是一种非常个人化的精神状态，而不是商业头脑本身。 Ag chem 经理依靠及时的科学（结果）来做出重要的业务决策。作为他们的实地研究代理，我们的工作是确保协议以高精度完成并及时报告结果，”他总结道。
与我们整个行业的同行一样， 美国贝尔奇姆 supports all partners who help with field trials from universities to private organizations. It’s important that agronomists, growers, and frankly, the entire agriculture ecosystem are armed with the latest knowledge and most cutting-edge advancements in order to keep our industry strong and profitable for all. As Michael Jordan once said, “talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”