- (Focus Area) Agriculture
- Author: Trina Kleist, UC Davis
Still providing the world with top-notch information
UC Davis has been a leading source of information for people handling, packaging and transporting crops since the beginnings of the Postharvest Research and Extension Center in 1979. Now, the center is strengthening its focus on the needs of industry, offering fresh courses, weaving strategic partnerships and expanding into digital media, all while building up its research capacity to better serve the needs of the produce industry.
“We're asking people in the industry, ‘How can we support you? How can we better listen to you?' We want people to know we're not disconnected know-it-alls,” said new center co-director Bárbara Blanco-Ulate, an associate professor in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences. “We're getting more faculty involvement, people with expertise in related fields such as quality engineering and safety, as well as bringing in emeriti faculty and people from around California. We're forming partnerships with organizations around the world, and we've opened up to people from other institutions around the country.”
“The larger the network, the more things we can do,” added fellow co-director Irwin R. Donis-Gonzalez, an associate professor of UC Cooperative Extension in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering.
The foundation: Expanded research
The new co-directors will beef up the center's applied science component with the hiring of a research specialist. They aim to provide new information that can be used industry-wide as companies explore new ways to handle and store fresh produce.
“We're building the capacity to respond to industry requests for research,” Blanco-Ulate said.
New courses, national reach
Their first workshop, held recently, demonstrates the center's renewed vision and commitment to broad networking: The Agricultural Water Systems Workshop addressed current concerns around water management and risks to food safety. Partners in the course included the Western Growers Association, the University of Arizona, the University of Florida and Salinas-based Taylor Fresh Foods, Inc.
Courses given over the past several years that have been recorded will be posted to the center's new, online video library and to the center's YouTube channel.
“People can watch those courses for free,” Blanco-Ulate said. In addition, new courses will be offered in-person and hybrid.
The co-directors are working with the University of California to offer continuing and professional education credits to course participants.
Online resources – many for free!
The center's website features a database with scores of free product fact sheets, which are downloaded by users around the world. The fact sheets are so highly regarded that they are considered expert evidence in legal proceedings, Blanco-Ulate said. Visitors to the website can also find links to research papers published by UC Davis faculty, including seminal works by Adel Kader, who founded the center.
Books are offered through the center's online bookstore and include titles through UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. Ten new titles are being planned, including topic-specific updates taken from previous classics.
Debunking myths: Ethylene
A new newsletter deals with a new problem: Misinformation about food and food handling that spreads through social media. One example is the use of ethylene to ripen produce such as bananas, so that they can be safely stored until ready for the consumer.
“Ethylene is safe for humans and does not leave any harmful residue on produce,” Donis-Gonzalez wrote in the center's latest newsletter. Even better news, he added: The levels of ethylene used on food are a tiny fraction of the concentrations that would be needed to create an explosion, one of the false alarms being raised in social media.
Evolving with the times
After 47 years of service, these and more updates will keep the center at the forefront of an evolving postharvest world. The top goal: Meet the needs of agriculturalists, industry and consumers.
“We are adapting to new needs, with both the resources and the workshop we're offering,” Donis-Gonzalez said.
“As a land-grant institution, we take our outreach mission seriously,” Blanco-Ulate added.
Related links
More about the UC Davis Postharvest Research and Extension Center.
This story first appeared on the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences site.
/h3>/h3>/h3>/h3>/h3>/h3>/h3>- Author: Sarah Marsh
- Editor: Taiyu Guan
- Editor: Consuelo B Baez Vega
Globally, approximately 570 million small and medium-sized farms need training in various agricultural fields. However, the delivery of agriculture training faces significant challenges. In some areas, the difficulty in obtaining this training has led to people turning to generative artificial intelligence (AI) models such as ChatGPT to ask questions relating to their agricultural production.
The way that ChatGPT and other models work is that the models are trained on vast amounts of data to learn patterns and relationships between words. This enables the models both to understand language in nuanced ways and to generate answers to a wide range of prompts, which means that ChatGPT can become adapted to specific uses and theoretically provide a comprehensive answer to any question. Researchers supported by the CGIAR's Excellence in Agronomy Initiative and the Digital Innovation Initiative studied the accuracy of Chat GPT-provided information and professional advice in response to queries from African farmers. Tzachor et al (2023) found significant inaccuracies that could potentially lead to poor management and crop losses. The problems with the answers ranged from vagueness to inaccuracy.
I became curious as to how accurate ChatGPT was with regards to questions relating to California rice and so conducted an informal test of my own. I asked ChatGPT questions relating to California water-seeded rice management to see how accurate the model was.
When queried about the insecticides that are registered for use in California water-seeded rice to control armyworms, ChatGPT responded with 6 insecticides – only one of which (lambda-cy) is used in CA rice systems. The remaining insecticides “recommended” were not used in California, not used for armyworms, or no longer commercially available.
I also asked ChatGPT “How to manage weedy rice in California water-seeded rice fields.” The model returned several paragraphs, with one problematic paragraph reproduced below:
Apply herbicides labeled for controlling weedy rice in water-seeded rice fields. Herbicide options may include products containing penoxsulam, propanil, or other active ingredients specifically targeting weedy rice. It's crucial to follow label instructions carefully and use herbicides at the appropriate timing and application rates to maximize effectiveness and minimize off-target effects.
As evidenced by these examples, ChatGPT is responding with answers that are not accurate and should not be taken as recommendations.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Thought for the day...
Every time we see a honey bee "posing perfectly" on a Gaillardia, commonly known as blanket flower, we think of a quote by internationally known honey bee geneticist, Robert E. Page Jr., a UC Davis doctoral alumnus and professor and chair emeritus of the UC Davis Department of Entomology (now the Department of Entomology and Nematology):
"The impact of bees on our world is immeasurable. Bees are responsible for the evolution of the vast array of brightly-colored flowers and for engineering the niches of multitudes of plants, animals, and microbes. They've painted our landscapes with flowers through their pollination activities and have evolved the most complex societies to aid their exploitation of the environment."
That's a passage from his book, The Art of the Bee.It's also featured on his YouTube Channel, https://www.youtube.com/@artofthebee.
Rob obtained his doctorate in entomology in 1980 from UC Davis; joined the UC Davis faculty in 1989; and chaired the Department of Entomology from 1999 to 2004. After retiring from UC Davis in 2004, he accepted an appointment at Arizona State University (ASU) as founding director of the School of Life Sciences. He served as dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, 2011-2013, and provost of ASU from 2013-2015. He is now emeritus. He was recently featured in Legends, American Entomologist. (See UC Davis Department of Entomology website)
Why did Page create the free and accessible-to-all YouTube Channel? Because that's what Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), known as a German geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science, would have done.
It's about making science understandable.
Check out Page's YouTube channel, including:
- Landscape Artists
- Environmental Engineers
- The Social Contract
- Superorganisms
- How to Make a Superorganism
- Song of the Queen
- Author: Ben A Faber
Back in the early 1990s the California Cherimoya Association decided to put together all their knowledge about the fruit and plant - from history to pollination and costs of production. There are numerous authors who are steeped in love of the fruit. It took several years to bring this all together. finalizing in 1995. It was only available to members of the Association, but now it's available on-line. If you make citation to this work, please recognize the CCA for all the effort that went into it, as well as the individual authors. This is the definitive work on California cherimoyas.
https://ceventura.ucanr.edu/Com_Ag/Subtropical/Minor_Subtropicals/TEST_1_/
Book 1: CCA Cherimoya Growers Handbook - Digital Version (PDF)
Chapter 1: History - Art Schroeder
Chapter 2: Botany - Art Schroeder
Chapter 3: Cultivars - Norm Ellstrand
Chapter 4: Propagation - Rob Brokaw
Chapter 5: Soil Fertility Management - Ben Faber
Chapter 6: Irrigation Management - Ben Faber
Chapter 7: Pruning and Training - Scott Van Der Kar
Chapter 8: Pollination - Theory and Practice - Tracy Kahn
Chapter 9: Insect Pest and Disease - Gary Bender
Chapter 10: Postharvest Handling - Mary Lu Arpaia
Chapter 11: Marketing - Peter Nichols
Chapter 12: Costs of Production - Claude Sweet
- Author: Ben A Faber
- Posted by: Gale Perez
Sterile Pollen Technique Shows Promise for Palmer Amaranth Weed Control
Newly published research provides a novel and sustainable weed-management strategy
WESTMINSTER, Colorado – 22 May2024 – Recently published research in the journal Weed Science shows that a sterilization technique commonly used to control insect pests can be modified to control weeds that require pollination to reproduce. More specifically, the researchers determined that employing a sterile pollen technique (SPT) could effectively disrupt Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri S.) reproduction.
Palmer amaranth remains among the most detrimental weeds in North American agriculture, and its resistance to several herbicide groups makes its control a serious challenge. Yet, researchers in this study were able to find a promising new control method for Palmer amaranth and possibly for many other difficult-to-control weeds.
“Our results indicate that SPT, using irradiated pollen, can be a valuable approach for reducing weed-seed production,” says Mohsen B. Mesgaran, Ph.D., a plant sciences assistant professor at the University of California Davis, and the article's corresponding author. “SPT also holds potential for broad-spectrum weed control by mixing sterile pollen from multiple weed species in a single application.”
Additionally, the researchers found that SPT shows promise for managing troublesome herbicide-resistant weeds that have survived in-season control efforts.“We observed the greatest reduction in seed set when irradiated pollen was introduced to the stigma through artificial pollination prior to open pollination,” notes Mesgaran. “It appears that irradiated pollen exerts a preventive effect on naturally occurring pollen that arrives later.”
While the researchers determined that a dose of 300 units of ionizing radiation (Gy) strikes the optimal balance to achieve both efficient Palmer amaranth pollination and seed sterility, challenges still remain. For example, irradiated pollen is currently less competitive than naturally occurring pollen. Thus, field managers may need to employ additional measures to successfully control Palmer amaranth with SPT, such as dispersing irradiated pollen in the field before male anthesis and releasing it multiple times.
More information about SPT and Palmer amaranth control can be found in the article (by Wenzhuo Wu and Mohsen B. Mesgaran), “Exploring sterile pollen technique as a novel tool for management of Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri).” The research is featured in Volume 72, Issue 3 of Weed Science, a Weed Science Society of America journal, published online by Cambridge University Press.
Original source: Weed Science Society of America (https://wssa.net/2024/05/sterile-pollen-technique-shows-promise-for-palmer-amaranth-weed-control/)