- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Nine UCCE specialists and advisors are participating in the $3.7 million grant for “Management of Brown Marmorated Stink Bug in U.S. Specialty Crops,” submitted by North Carolina State University, Raleigh. The stink bug project is a multi-state project to develop management tools and strategies using biological control.
“This is a very common invasive insect in Sacramento and other urban areas but has not widely infested agricultural areas,” said Larry Godfrey, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. “Based on what the insect has done in the mid-Atlantic states in the East, everyone expects it to invade crop areas. The grant is not crop specific, other than specialty crops, which is about all of the crops we grow in California--except (primarily) rice, corn and cotton. We will be studying how this pest adapts to California conditions and crops. And also studies will be done on the fit of biological control for managing this pest. Clearly some of our major crops such as grapes, almonds and other nut crops, tomatoes, cool-season vegetables, stone fruits, etc. will be subjects of research.”
Other UC scientists working on the brown marmorated stink bug project with Godfrey are Frank Zalom, UCCE specialist and professor in the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, UCCE specialists Kent Daane in the UC Berkeley Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management, and Mark Hoddle in the UC Riverside Department of Entomology; UCCE advisors Monica Cooper in Napa County and Chuck Ingels in Sacramento County; and area integrated pest management advisors Emily Symmes in Butte County, Shimat Joseph in Monterey County and Jhalendra Rijal in Stanislaus County.
One study will identify plants currently available in the marketplace that attract pollinators and the pollinators which visit them. Another study will document the actual risk to pollinators from current and alternative ornamental horticulture production practices. Extension efforts include developing recommendations for growers and landscape professionals for effective pest management while protecting pollinators and crafting guidelines for pollinator education displays at garden centers and public gardens.
For more information about the 19 grants funded, visit USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Specialty Crop Research Initiative website.
In July 2014, UC President Janet Napolitano launched the UC Global Food Initiative (GFI) and ANR continues to play a major role in the GFI. Two new examples are a special issue of California Agriculture that is in the planning stages and a food-research video competition for UC students that the Nutrition Policy Institute is co-sponsoring. A call has gone out UC systemwide to participate in these projects.
Special issue of California Agriculture
ANR's peer-reviewed research journal California Agriculture is planning a special Global Food Initiative issue for summer 2017. Developed in partnership with GFI leaders at ANR, UCOP, the 10 UC campuses and the UC-affiliated national laboratories, the issue will mark the third anniversary of the initiative's launch.
The issue will feature a collection of original research papers in the GFI subject areas: nutrition, food security, food sourcing, food equity, food literacy, food recovery, food waste, local food systems, sustainable agricultural production, sustainable fishery practices, sustainable urban agriculture and climate smart agriculture. A call for papers is going out to researchers throughout the UC System.
ANR researchers working in these areas are encouraged to submit papers. Please see the call for manuscripts for full details. Abstracts are due for initial review by Oct. 1, 2016, with complete manuscripts to be submitted by Nov. 18.
If you have questions, contact Jim Downing, executive editor, at jdowning@ucanr.edu and (530) 750-1352.
Food research video contest
The World Food Day Video Challenge, co-sponsored by UCANR's Nutrition Policy Institute, the UC Davis World Food Center and the GFI, is open to UC students. Students from all the UC campuses are invited to submit videos up to three minutes long that feature UC research. It could be about their own research or your research.
The winning team will receive $1,000 and an opportunity for team members (up to 3) to attend the Borlaug Dialogue International Symposium in October.
One objective of the contest is to raise awareness of the depth and breadth of food-related research and outreach being performed across the UC system.
Please encourage GFI fellows and UC students at your locations to participate by submitting a video by Sept. 7, 2016.
Details about the challenge are at foodvideos.ucdavis.edu. If you have questions, read the FAQs or contact WFC's Amy Beaudrealt at abeaudreault@ucdavis.edu or NPI's Ron Strochlic at rstrochlic@ucanr.edu.
This year, proposals are requested in the junior investigator category only.
Funded projects will begin March 1, 2017. Please note that the funding period may fluctuate and is based on budget appropriations.
The deadline for submitting proposals is Oct. 21, 2016.
To download the full RFP including budget templates, visit the CIWR website http://ciwr.ucanr.edu/Request_for_Proposals.
The University of Minnesota Extension and the National Urban Extension Leaders have announced a call for proposals for the National Urban Extension Conference on “Engaging in Collective Purpose,” which will be held in Bloomington, Minn., May 7-11, 2017.
Proposals may include, but are not limited to, examples and impacts based on how extension operates in city or regional centers, city neighborhoods through shared partnered offices or through traditional county operations.
The full call for proposals is at https://sites.google.com/a/umn.edu/urbanextensionconference2017/call-for-proposals.
The deadline for submissions is Sept. 30, 2016.
For more information about the National Urban Extension Conference, visit the conference website.
UC Personnel Policies for Staff Members (PPSM) revisions were recently approved and signed by President Napolitano.
The revised policies include following:
- PPSM-1 General Provisions
- PPSM-2 Definition of Terms
- PPSM-64 Termination and Job Abandonment
- PPSM-70 Complaint Resolution
- PPSM-82 Conflict of Interest
In general, the policies were revised to
- Consolidate the three termination policies into one policy document
- Consolidate the two complaint resolution policies into one policy document
- Add a job abandonment provision to the termination policy
- Align language in the termination and complaint resolution policies with the Career Tracks classification structure
You can view these and other recently revised polices at http://policy.ucop.edu/advanced-search.php?action=welcome&op=browse&recent=1.