USDA Invests $4.7 Million to Address Critical Plant Pest Problems

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