Posts Tagged: USDA

UC Davis researchers to receive $40 million from USDA

UC Davis agricultural researchers will receive $40 million in new federal funding to support research projects aimed at helping farmers deal with climate change and developing sustainable bio-energy sources.

Roger Beachy, director of USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, will announce the grant awards along with UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi and Neal Van Alfen, dean of the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, at a 10 a.m. press conference tomorrow at UC Davis.

The two research awards are being made through the National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, a flagship competitive grant program established by the 2008 Farm Bill, according to a media advisory produced by UC Davis news service public information representative Pat Bailey.

The grant program provides support in the following priority areas:

• Plant health and production and plant products
• Animal health and production and animal products
• Food safety, nutrition and health
• Agricultural economics and rural communities

UC labs get $1 million to study exotic pests

USDA announced last week that UC Davis and UC Berkeley are among 13 research universities across the country that will receive funds to develop ecologically and economically rational strategies for management, control or elimination of weedy or invasive species.

Nearly $500,000 will go to the Davis laboratory and $500,000 to a UC Berkeley laboratory. The 13 university recipients are sharing $4.6 million in all.

"Invasive plants and animals are a major threat to food and fiber production, costing U.S. producers between $7 billion and $27 billion per year, but by doing research on controlling and managing weedy and invasive species we help protect the productivity of America's farmers and ranchers," a USDA news release quotes agriculture secretary Kathleen Merrigan.

The other grant recipients are:

• Auburn University, Auburn, Ala., $494,000
• University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska, $494,000
• University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska, $149,911
• Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo., $124,962
• Idaho State University, Moscow, Idaho, $199,704
• University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minn., $493,000
• University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minn., $491,000
• Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., $454,000
• Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, $494,000
• Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, $91,423
• Oregon State University, Corvallis, Ore., $125,000

Light brown apple moth is an invasive species in California.

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