USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture recently awarded 16 applied research and development grants to enhance the development, adoption, and implementation of innovative, ecologically-based, sustainable integrated pest management (IPM) technologies, tools, and strategies that address regional and/or national IPM priorities.
Among the projects funded include the use of photobiology and lighting technologies for suppression of powdery mildew in strawberry production. These grants are a part of NIFA’s Crop Protection and Pest Management Program, which addresses integrated pest management solutions for emerging weed, disease, and insect pests.
• Thermotherapy for non-chemical management of cryptic infections of strawberry transplants and emerging fungicide-resistant populations, University of Florida
• Multistate approach to quantifying and managing insecticide resistance in Plutella xylostella — diamondback moth — in cole crops, University of Georgia
• Developing a multi-life stage management strategy for apple maggot through the integration of attract-and-kill and biological control, University of Massachusetts
• Development and demonstration of short- and long-term strategies for management of the resurgent blueberry stem gall wasp, Michigan State University
• Leveraging pest behavior for implementation of biological control for plum curculio, Rutgers University
• Applied research and rapid extension of discoveries in photobiology and lighting technologies for suppression of powdery mildew in strawberry, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• Solutions for managing allium leafminer: a new invasive threat to allium crops in North America, Penn State University
Source: www.agropages.com
