https://cals.ncsu.edu/international-programs/visitors/wolfpack-colombia/

NCSU has licensed the blackberry cultivar 'Von' to Global Plant Genetics for production outside of the US. #180048MA

Von  blackberry has been trialed extensively in a long cane system in several EU countries and has done very well in full commercial production. You Tube link

A collaborative project was initiated with Viveros Frutura SpA (VFS) in 2019-2020. Viveros Frutura is a private Chilean company that produces raspberry, blackberry and blueberry fruit for export markets.

The objective of this project was to supply VFS with breeding populations that had the potenail to produce superior genotype(s) that could be used for commerical production.

One of the founders recieved her PhD in plant breeding and has the training to evaluate the seedlings for potential adapation. Nine raspberry crosses (hybridizations) were generated from the crosses of NC elite raspberry selections. We gnerated approxiamtely 1000 seeds from each cross. The seeds were sent to Chile in 2021 and were planted. Field evaluations will commence in 2022.

Name of the company: Viveros Frutura SpA.

Address for documentation and business: Aparición Sur PC 18 2A, Paine. Chile

Address for delivering purposes: Avenida Kennedy 5770. Of. 518. Vitacura, Santiago. Chile. 

Phone: +56963093236.

Email:asalgado@mondasol.cl

Collect germplasm for research from various countries including Mexico, New Zealand, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, and others in coorperation with local hosts.

I was selected to be a Board of Directors Member of International Research Center for Animal Environment and Welfare (IRCAEW) in October 2017. More information about this center may be found at  http://www.ircaew.org/ 

This Research and Extension Experience for undergraduate funded by USDA NIFA focuses on agricultural water pollution and how the science intersects with the policy and practice. It inlcudes an international component with a 1 week long trip to France where students and mentors will interact with researchers, policy markers, water managers and farmers to learn more about the French and European challenges, solutions and opportunities in agricultural water pollution.

Reducing carbon emissions and developing alternative routes for fertilizer production are increasingly urgent challenges facing our world. The ability to discover and quickly scale solutions requires innovative partnerships across public and private sectors.

This interdisciplinary research collaboration between North Carolina State University (NC State) and the Technical University of Denmark (Danmarks Tekniske Universitet, DTU) aims to uncover new biology-based methods for CO2 management and sustainable fertilizer production. 

The project, called the Biocatalyst Interactions with Gases (BIG) Collaboration, is funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF). Led by NC State, the collaboration team will receive 50 million Danish Kroner (DKK), or approximately $6.5 million in funding over five years.

Collaborating with national research centers and universities to build research capacity and improve peanut production in northern Ghana

Savannah Agricultural Research Institute is primary partner

This project supports the increased production of peanuts as Malawi transitions away from a tobacco-based agricultural economy.   There are collaborative research and extension projects with the Ministry of Ag and acadedmia and the support and training of both MSc and PhD students

Reducing carbon emissions and developing alternative routes for fertilizer production are increasingly urgent challenges facing our world. The ability to discover and quickly scale solutions requires innovative partnerships across public and private sectors.

This interdisciplinary research collaboration between North Carolina State University (NC State) and the Technical University of Denmark (Danmarks Tekniske Universitet, DTU) aims to uncover new biology-based methods for CO2 management and sustainable fertilizer production. 

The project, called the Biocatalyst Interactions with Gases (BIG) Collaboration, is funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF). Led by NC State, the collaboration team will receive 50 million Danish Kroner (DKK), or approximately $6.5 million in funding over five years.

Our interdisciplinary team blends engineers, biologists and mathematicians to quantify and model the small scale spread of cassava’s most damaging pathogen in sub-Saharan Africa. We will refine our multispectral scanning device (MSI) and model to accommodate field conditions, where other plant stresses may affect the underlying signals detected by the MSI. We will experimentally monitor the spread of CBSD in experimental fields with both susceptible and tolerant cultivars of cassava. We will develop models of how different detection methods affect the amount of CBSD in a cassava clean seed system that will be applicable to any vegetatively propagated crop, including the US potato clean seed system. Finally we will model how an improved clean seed system and judicious use of an MSI or molecular testing could improve the security of small stakeholder farmers over multiple harvest seasons.

We are confident that our MSI tool and our models will be of wide use for other agricultural pathosystems. In the process of obtaining the parameters needed for accurate models, we will uncover key data about the biology and evolvability of CBSIs. The proposed research would be a significant advance in agricultural technology (Grieve et al 2019), provide useful and adaptable models for agricultural problems in both developing and developed nations and be a large step towards assuring food security of this critical crop in sub-Saharan Africa.

Understanding the genetic basis of complex traits is vital for meeting the challenge of increased fiber quality and yield in this period of global climate change. Minor genes or QTLs control most of the agronomic traits in cotton with small contributions to the overall phenotypic effect. Identifying marker-trait associations for the QTLs would enable genomics based cotton improvement. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) based on linkage disequilibrium (LD) provide a promising tool for detection and fine mapping of QTLs underlying such complex traits. Our research will support the construction of the largest immortal mapping population in cotton, which will ultimately help to bridge genomics and plant breeding through the dissection of complex traits and laying the foundation for genome-wide selection in breeding programs.

Student exchanges, study abroad, and faculty visits. NCSU will learn about agriculture and natural resource conservation in the tropics and University of Costa Rica students will learn about agriculture and new  technologies for biological research in the USA.

This is a comprehensive research, teaching, and outreach project to develop Tilapia and indigenous vegetable production and value chain in Kenya.  This project is in collaboration with faculty at the University of Nairobi, Maseno University, Egerton University, and NC State University.

North Carolina State University, Cornell University, University of Arkansas, University of British Columbia/BC Berry Cultivar Development Inc., and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Corvallis OR, have joined in a collaborative effort with Pairwise, and Plant Sciences Inc to uncover the genetic potential in the genus Rubus. The collaborators include public berry breeders, geneticists, molecular biologists, germplasm curators, bioinformaticists and data scientists.

The research at NCSU will have two main components. The first experiment is an environmental effect study. This is a “traditional” breeding study that will encompass the phenotyping of a set of traits on the same 5 cultivars in 6 geographically distinct locations over two years. The range of locations include the primary public Rubus breeding programs in North America. The cultivars being evaluated include raspberries, blackberries, and a black raspberry. The aim of this study is to provide information on the heredity of economically significant traits and the effects of genotype, environment and their interactions. A second study  will be a SNP validation study of the 5 genotypes in the above experiment as well as 25 other Rubus species.

This project is to investigate the effect of supplemental inorganic or organic Zn on the integrity and barrier function, epithelial cell proliferation, mRNA and protein expression levels of major tight junction proteins and the above key signaling pathway genes via in vivo and in vitro studies.

Our team based in Kenya and the US will: 1) Identify and quantify critical points for pre- and postharvest losses and opportunities along the value chain; 2. Enhance postharvest management, value addition and safety; 3. Strengthen market linkages by linking smallholder farmers, including women and youths, to local and regional markets and 4. Improve nutrition and dietary diversification by promoting consumption of AIVs in rural and urban households. The study will be conducted in Kisii and Kakamega counties in Kenya. We will building capacity of local personnel by training key stakeholders in Kenya. The project will help improve food and nutrition security and improve incomes among smallholders AIVs farmers in Kenya.

The project " Divesificated agricultural systems and alternative nutrient sources for sustainable production in Brazilian sandy soils" is sponsored by CNPq - Brazilian Council for Scientific and Technological Development), Brazil. There are about 10 Brazilian universities participating in this multi-state project in brazil

The project " Integrated technologies for alternative nutrient sources with microorganisms in integrated crop systems" is sponsored by CNPq - Brazilian Council for Scientific and Technological Development), Brazil, with many Brazilian universities as part of the project.

Work on genetic and nutritional diversity of African Indigenous Vegetables by advising Kenyan researchers in the field, and training a Kenyan graduate student in plant breeding.

Collaboration on studying bioactive priciples in berry crops

The New Zealand Institute for Plant and Food Research Limited

Collaborations on anthocyanins and their effects on human health

University of Wollongong

Collaboration on ploant bioactives from traditional knowledge

University of Pretoria

Collaboration of medicinal plants

Wroclaw Medical University Poland

Collaboration of plant phytochemistry and alternative proteins

Department of Plant Science

College of Agriculture and Natural Resources
Mizan-Tepi University, Mizan Teferi

Ethiopia

One of the grand challenges facing humanity is to secure sufficient and healthy food for the increasing world population. This requires maintaining sustainable cultivation of crop plants under changing climate conditions. Plant roots and soil microbes have been associated since the emergence of plants on land. Nevertheless, the mechanisms that coevolved to control and regulate microbiota associations with healthy plants are largely unexplored. The photosynthetically active green leaf tissues supply assimilated carbon to roots for development and also to feed its associated microbes. To maintain balanced growth, plants have to integrate this underground demand and regulate the rate of photosynthetic CO2 fixation, and sugar allocation needs to be coordinated between root and shoot. Research on plants and their naturally associated microorganisms is therefore in a prime position to provide new perspectives and concepts for understanding plant function, plant performance and plant growth under limited input conditions with a reduced environmental footprint and could also define breeding targets and develop microbial interventions. InRoot aims to: 1. Disentangle the effects of climate and soil type from the impact of root-microbe interactions through transplantation experiments and exploit natural variation to identify the plant genetic components responsible for adaptation to the local microbiota. 2. Identify key bacterial taxa governing the establishment of host-driven microbial networks in the rhizosphere by analysing the microbe-microbe and microbe-host interactions established in tailored synthetic communities (SynComs) with direct consequences on host performance. 3. Define the plant genetic components that control infection of plant roots by ubiquitous and host-specific endophytes using advanced genetic screens and new methods for quantifying root cellular responses to microbes 4. Understand molecular mechanisms integrating root-microbe interactions into whole-plant physiology by investigating systemic physiological responses induced by SynComs using whole plant phenotyping. 5. Predict plant performance as a function of plant and microbiota genotypes by building multiscale models based on genotype, phenotype, and mechanistic data thereby providing knowledge for application. InRoot perspective: Provide knowledge and tools for science-based development of new crop varieties and associated microbial interventions that will improve productivity, reduce the need for fertilizers and pesticides, and alleviate negative environmental impact.

The goal of this project is to characterize novel DNA sequences that enhance or confer resistance to Cassava mosaic disease, identify new sources of resistance, and provide training for Tanzanian predoctoral and postdoctoral scientists. 

Leading a group of academic authors from NC State, from Cali, Colombia, Manizales, Colombia, and Puebla, Mexico since 2020 to write industry-relevant coffee-related publications.

Studie of tolyporphin biosynthesis from cyanobacteria and cyanobacterial-microbial consortia

INTERACT will focus on the essential and mutually beneficial interactions between plants and microbes below ground. This project will go beyond a mere inventory of wheat plant microbiome community members, and will provide much needed insight into rhizosphere ecology and microbial communication, with a goal of establishing diagnostic chemical/biological signatures for agro-system stability. With this knowledge, we can rationally and strategically manipulate plant-associated microbial communities to support high plant productivity across challenging climatic and stress scenarios. These critical advances in our understanding of rhizosphere community structure and the chemical landscape that influences its formation and function will be achieved by using genomics, transcriptomics, metaproteomics, metabolomics, in-field and greenhouse plant phenotyping, and network analysis/model construction for evaluating rhizosphere interactions for wheat.

Research teams traveled to Mexico to identify and collect samples of Manihot species with geminivirus resistance. Twenty seven unique species were identified and samples collected from the field and from herbariums throughout Mexico. Working with multiple institutions and research herbariums the samples were collected and the DNA was isolated. The project hopes to use the DNA samples to sequence and work with Cassava free of the geminivirus. 

Colaborate with the leadership at the Univesidad Nacional in Colombia for the development of an associated organization which can attract external funding, coordinate multi-institutional projects, and lead international proposals.  The focus of the initial interaction has been the use of biodiversity for rural development.  The target location is the Pacific region of Colombia.

Ginger production in Kaduna State was descimated by an unidentified disease during the 2023 season.  I have helped put together an international team with experience in ginger production to help Nigerian Root Crop Research Institute deal with the problem and prepare for the 2024 season.

This is a discussion group coordinated by the University of Queensland (Australia) that convenes every month to discuss issues with the production and consumption of high cyanide varieties in Africa.  A F2F meeting is expected at the end of 2024

The NCSU RTB Breeding project will combine the prior investments of the SASHA, GT4SP and SweetGAINS conventional and genomic-assisted breeding (GAB) projects into a single breeding component focused on utilizing GAB to improve genetic gains in sweetpotato across SSA. The NC State Sweetpotato Breeding and Genetics Program has agreed to lead the genomic-assisted and genomic prediction associated components of the RTB sweetpotato and potato breeding project, in collaboration with the International Potato Center, Lima, Peru and the NCSU sub-contracted partners listed above. Dr. Quesada’s pathology team will be conducting a survey and assisting with the evaluation of post-harvest losses in sweetpotato and possibly other RTB crops as needed and time permits in SSA. 

NCSU research project will largely be aligned with the following RTB Breeding Themes (Figure 1): Theme 2: Mainstreaming modern breeding in banana, cassava, potato, sweetpotato and yam; and RTB Breeding Theme 3: Towards One CGIAR-NARS breeding networks; RTB Theme 4: Enabling breeding technologies; and RTB Breeding Theme 5: Project management, outreach, and guidance. 

During my sabbatical leave at Nanjing Agricultural University in 2014-2015, I helped design two long-term (planned for 10 years if funding is available) global change factor manipulation experiments, one each on the Tibetan Plateau Alpine (Maqu, Gansu Province) (33°59’N, 102°00’E, c. 3538 m a.s.l.) ) and Yellow Loess Plateau (Guyuan, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region) (106°21′–106°27′E, 36°10′ – 36°17′N, altitude 1800–2000 m), northwest China.  The two experiments have an identical design and treatments in field but they are under very different environmental conditions (alpine meadow vs. semi-arid grassland). Each field manipulation experiment involves three levels of precipitation (precipitation reduction by 30% (PR), ambient, precipitation increase by 30% (PI)), two levels of warming (ambient, warming) and two levels of N (ambient, 12 g m -2 yr -1 added N). Randomized block design was used with 4 replicates. In total, we had 48 (3 precipitation levels × 2 warming levels × 2 N addition levels × 4 blocks) plots at each site. The plots were 4 m × 4 m in size and 1.5 m away from each other in each block. The distance between each block was 5 m. We used open top chamber (OTCs) with a maximum basal diameter of 150 cm, following the International Tundra Experiment (ITEX) protocol (Papanikolaou et al. 2010; Waldrop & Firestone 2006), to increase air temperatures of the plots of the warming treatment. Nitrogen (206.9 g urea in total) was added as urea solution twice each year (half each in May and June). In each PR plot, we installed a rain shelter which was designed to prevent approximately 30% of precipitation in the plot. The rain shelter consisted of seven v-shaped transparent plexiglass and an iron hanger, which was 1 meter above the soil surface in the south side and 1.5 m on the north side. Intercepted rainfall in each PR plot was collected and then added into the nearest PI plot.

Each year, students, postdocs and young teachers from Nanjing Agric University stay on each site starting on early May to early October to maintain the field plots. It is really tough for them because of high elevation and poor field facilities (for example, no warm water on site but it is quite cold there).

Plant and soil samples have been collected or will be collected once or twice a year, pending on the manpower and funding availability.

I will mainly provide advice on sampling scheme, data analyses, and manuscript writing.

I strongly believe that it will be a significant contribution to the scientific community if we can maintain this long-term experiment. Because these sites locate in the region that is very sensitive to the ongoing climate change, we may obtain some unique results for the climate change community across the world. Some ecologists from US have visited these sites, including Dr. Scott Collins (Professor, U. of New Mexico, former president of Ecological Society of America), Dr. Valerie Eviner (Professor, UC Davis, former vice president of Ecological Society of America), Dr. Steven J. Hall at Iowa State and several professors from other universities in US. 

This project establishes a research and training partnership between scientists in the U.S. and East Africa to study the evolution of plant DNA viruses, which have emerged as leading pathogens and now threaten crops worldwide. Africa?s future depends on increasing food production to feed its growing population. There has been dramatic growth in the investments by governments, nongovernmental organizations, international donors and the private sector to develop the scientific expertise and infrastructure necessary to find solutions to the problems that limit African agriculture. The Biosciences eastern and central Africa-International Livestock Research Institute (BecA-ILRI) Hub in Kenya and the Mikocheni Agricultural Research Institute (MARI) in Tanzania were created to solve problems facing African farmers and limiting food security. A U.S.-East Africa partnership represents an excellent international opportunity for research synergy and training of U.S. students and early career scientists. Postdoctoral researchers, graduate students and undergraduates will be mentored by a strong international research team, which includes experts on viral population genetics, insect vector transmission and population dynamics, virus/vector/plant interactions, and STEM education. The multidisciplinary nature of the research will provide trainees experience in laboratory and field-based research as

well as bioinformatics. This will prepare them to become globally engaged, independent scientists with a solid foundation in a range of research methodologies and environments and first-hand experience in international and multidisciplinary collaborations.

Intellectual Merit :

Molecular evolution of plant viruses occurs through mutation, recombination and reassortment of viral genome components, resulting in a high degree of variation. In complex pathosystems, the evolutionary outcomes are influenced by many ecological factors including agricultural practices, insect vector populations, interactions between crops and reservoir plants, and climate. Most of our knowledge of viral evolution is based on field-collected samples, which only provide snapshots of viral diversity at specific times and locations. To examine the full evolutionary potential of plant DNA viruses and the bottlenecks that constrain their evolution, we propose a comprehensive analysis of the drivers of viral genetic diversity, emergence, persistence and spread under tightly controlled experimental conditions. These studies will focus on Cassava mosaic disease (CMD), which is endemic to Africa, and as such rely on the combined expertise and resources of the U.S. and African participants. Our study is transformative in that it will provide a comprehensive framework for examining viral evolution in relationship to the host, the insect vector and the environment using a crop and inoculation methods that accurately reflect real world conditions. Our integrated approach will also serve as a model for examining viral evolution and will inform the development of control strategies for other insect-transmitted viruses that negatively impact plant, animal and human health.

Broader Impacts :Agriculture is increasingly a global enterprise, and it is essential that U.S. scientists work with their counterparts in other countries to better understand plant pathogens as well as their hosts and insect vectors. The proposed experiments will increase our understanding of how plant DNA viruses evolve and the functional constraints on their evolution. They represent an important step in the development of rational, durable control strategies for these important plant pathogens. Cassava is a major food crop in Africa, but its production is severely limitedby CMD. A better understanding of the factors that drive the evolution of the CMD viral complex can be used to prioritize the limited financial and human resources available to combat the disease and to improve the lives of smallholder farmers in Africa. All resulting sequence data and analyses will be available to the broader scientific community through our web-based sequence analysis environment (SNAP Workbench). A unique aspect will be opportunities to communicate with the general public via the NC Museum of Natural Science. Equally important, the proposal provides a framework for recruiting and training a group of diverse, globally-engaged plant scientists to work with researchers around the world to help secure the food and biomass needs of the future.

This project establishes a research and training partnership between scientists in the U.S. and East Africa to study the evolution of plant DNA viruses, which have emerged as leading pathogens and now threaten food and fiber crops worldwide. Africa’s future depends on increasing food production to meet the needs of its grow­ing population. Over the last decade, there has been dramatic growth in the investments by governments, nongovernmental organizations, international donors and the private sector to develop the scientific expertise and infrastructure necessary to find solutions to the problems that limit African agriculture. The Biosciences Eastern and Central Africa - International Livestock Research Institute (BecA-ILRI) Hub in Kenya and the Mikocheni Agricultural Research Institute (MARI) in Tanzania were created to solve problems facing African farmers and limiting food security. Hence, a U.S.-East Africa partner­ship represents an excellent international opportunity for re­search synergy and training of U.S. stu­dents and early career sci­entists. Key features of the proposal include the establishment of a research exchange program between labora­tories in the U.S. and East Africa. Postdoc­toral researchers, graduate students and undergraduates will be mentored by a strong in­ternational re­search team, which includes experts on viral population genetics, insect vector transmis­sion and population dynamics, virus/vector/plant interactions, and STEM education. The multidisciplinary nature of the proposed research will provide trainees experience in laboratory and field-based re­search as well as bioinformatics. This will prepare them to become globally engaged, independent scientists with a solid founda­tion in a range of research methodologies and envi­ronments and first-hand experience in productive international and multidisciplinary collaborations.

PIRE: U.S.-East Africa Research and Education Partnership. "In this project we are asking for the bottlenecks of viral evolution during infection in cassava and during transmission through the whitefly (Bemisia tabaci). We will train our personnel in a tomato model (with a bipartite begomovirus) in the U.S. before going to Africa (particularly in Kenya and Tanzania) to perform our experiments with the native geminiviruses infecting cassava. We anticipate to understand the drivers of selection within the plant host and the vector in order to expand our understanding of the pathosystem.

Advice and mentor breeders within the CGIAR working on Root and Tuber Crops and Banana. Help them streamline breeding process, and launching new products.

The primary screwworm Cochliomyia hominivorax is a devastating obligate parasite of livestock in South America. The joint US-Panamanian facility in Pacora, Panama produces millions of sterile flies weekly that are released along the Colombian border to prevent screwworm from re-establishing in Panama. To improve the efficiency of genetic suppression we are developing novel methods for producing only sterile male flies including conditional female lethal and female transformation strains. The genetic systems are first developed in Raleigh and evaluated in close relatives of the screwworm such as the secondary screwworm, which is native to North Carolina. Promising genetic systems are shipped to Panama for evaluation in primary screwworm.

This Scientific Exchange Program is hosting one Fellow from Peru to conduct research on climate-smart agriculture and applying new molecular tools for bean and maize breeding with mentor Ruben Rellan-Alvarez.  The Fellow will spend 12 weeks at NC State conducting research and the mentor will conduct a reciprocal visit to the Fellow's home research institution. 

in collaboration with the University of Missouri and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NC State will be hosting five of the 16 research fellows from Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal who will be conducting research focusing international agricultural trade, including sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures and technical barriers to trade (TBT).  Interwoven into this program will be the means and methods to use Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) to improve food safety.

This Scientific Exchange Program is hosting eight Fellows from Central/Latin America, specifically from Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru to conduct research on climate-smart agriculture and agri-food systems. The Fellows will spend 12 weeks at NC State conducting research with faculty mentors and engaging in leadership and science communication training. The mentors will conduct reciprocal visit to the Fellows' home research institutions. 

Transformative changes are needed to address agriculture’s grand challenge of increasing food
production while maintaining environmental integrity. Changes must mitigate: agricultures high
energy demand; impending water scarcity and herbicide-resistant weeds; consequences of climate
change (more frequent flooding, droughts, and extreme heat); and decline in soil health, critical for
improving soil and water quality. This proposal will address these unprecedented threats by
providing the infrastructure necessary to support and accelerate cover crop (CC) use nationwide,
thereby meeting NIFA program goals of 1) increasing total factor productivity, 2) improving water
and nitrogen use efficiency, and 3) reducing losses due to biotic and abiotic stresses. An integrated
transdisciplinary approach of research (54%), extension (30%), and education (16%) components
will address our objectives to: 1) Transform CC data connectivity via nationwide social and
technical infrastructure; 2) Develop key technologies to improve CC performance, inform
management, and determine impacts on agronomic productivity, stability, and ecosystem services;
3) Deploy key technologies with CCs to assess abiotic and biotic factors affecting crop
performance; 4) Transform education and extension knowledge delivery to catalyze CC adoption;
and 5) Determine the effectiveness of a CC information ecology as a model for integrating
participatory research and practice. A nationwide team of dedicated research, extension and NGO
personnel from 28 institutions will establish on-station and on-farm research networks, novel
teaching curriculum, and extensive social-science based outreach. Our overall goal is to increase
crop productivity, conserve natural resources, and reduce our agro-ecological footprint through
increased and improved use of CCs.

NC State will work to identify a sustainable, economically advantageous, solar powered, cold storage system to handle two commodities that can be used for orange flesh sweetpotato roots (for processing into puree and fresh root use), and onions. The cold storage will be flexible to handle both local and imported agricultural products. The intention is to determine and establish the economic viability of small solar-powered containers to facilitate a year-round supply of root crops. NC State will work in collaboration with the USDA/FAS, the International Potato Center and other Kenyan partners, such as the Kenyan government and other stakeholders in the Kenya Home Grown School Meals Program (HGSMP). NC State will obtain, install, and instruct Kenyan partners (i.e. the Ministry of Agriculture and a farmers organization) in their operation, analysis of pertinent value chains, and interpretation of findings. The solar cold storage containers are expected to help strengthen local market systems (including producers, processors and traders) for root crops by reducing losses from decay, reducing energy costs, and improving nutrition by increasing access to and the use of various high quality, nutritious, and culturally appropriate foods in school meals.

Research focused on greenhouse gas reduction from nitrogen fertilization in coffee plantations. Including the use of inhibitors, managment, source and rate of fertilizer choices. The goal is to mitigate GHG emissions to lower carbon footprint of coffee production in colombia. 

Via a research grant awarded by Mazuri, we are studying nutrition parameters in sanctuary housed Howler monkeys near Nosara, Costa Rica.

This is a study abroad course. It is planned to occur every summer.

Two weeks in Chiang Mai and one week in Koh Tao.

The fields of Economics and Agricultural and Resource Economics are dominated by financial models that focus on relationships among a broad range of financials such a inflation, economic growth, debt, stock market, portfolios, and so on.  This can be dated to Alfred Hayek and with even greater vigor to Milton Friedman.  These emphases replace political economy which has dominated Economics sinnce the studies of the ancients through Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and even von Mises.  The field is dominated by increasingly esoteric modeling of the relationships without any ties to dynamics outside of financials.  Thus, any effort to make the discipline multidisciplinary as it was for centuries is ignored or quashed.  The financials of economics matter to only one class of people other than economists--the extremely wealthy.What matters to the world is the DISTRIBUTION of finances to the not-wealthy.  The wealthyy are a fraction of the US and world population.  Yet Econoics serves at their behest,  Indeed the Paucity of Ecoomics is the Paucity of the world.  My work examines the sources of inequality, non-wealth, for ruraal and urban populations.  For a dcade I examined how "gentrification" in its modern form channels land and wealthy to urban elites.  Recently i have treating it through Industrial agriculture and land grabbing of US farms as well as the land of the third world.  My theoretical approach is socio-economics, with a global lens.Global environment and the distribution of control of resources fashion national economic well-being as well as dometic polity (democracy, or autocracy).  Economics and political control determine the advance of the military and the military complex declared by "Ike"around 6 decades ago.  Together national strenghts in economics, politics, military and culture form webs of power between every nation in the world and further fashion their fate. Particularly they impact all of society's most important instututions (family, church, governance systems, money and banking,   These in turn affect the form of urban and rural governance,as well as the structure of agriculture.  Industrial Agriculture is very productive, yielding over 130% of global food needs.  The needs are inequitably met.The 2,200 billionaires of the world, alongside what is argued to be 20,000 millionnaires of the world,essentially determine the lifechances of the 8 billion+ population of the world.  They determine on the national level where food surplus will travel within nations, whther it is channelled into state silos, to areas with traversible roads, to populations who support the state as opposed to those who are attemptiong to overthrow it, and so on.

When I first proposed this logic i knew only of the related work of economist Stiglitz.  After the original publication of my work (but doubless NOT due to it) the world Bank adopted a logic that was nearly identical to the arguments above.  it has become part of the core work of the French economist Piketty.  i have collected a dataset on 172 countries and I am examining the impacts of theorized variable on food security and on the environment, which i have not touched on here.  However, I will next year.  

Along with Loop Abroad and Dr. Shweta Trivedi, we are developing an animal science study abroad opportunity in Costa Rica.

Hosting and mentoring an international post-doctoral fellow from Colombia for a multi-year food product development centered experience.

While working in Brazil, from 2014 to 2016 I was coordinating the experts grop to update the fertilizer recommendations for two states of southern Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul State and Santa Catarina State). The manual of recommendatios were published in 2016.

In 2022 the committee started to work again to update the recommendations. I am part of the committee and we have been meeting by zoom montly. The new version of the recommendations is expected to be published in 2024. 

Traning in soil fertility for farmers and training in soil analysis to a soil testing lab in Ferghana Valley, Uzbekistan. Also included lectures in three Universities in Uzbekistan

I am an advisory member of this project funded by the French government. The goal is to understand how urban warming and climate change affect pine processionary moth phenology.

We work internationally to build regulatory capacity through research, engagement, and communication. We accomplish this through trainings, workshops, and capacity building in the Western Hemisphere (Central and South America), Southeast Asia, and Africa.
This program is predicated on the fact that regulation should meet the needs of society by providing access to science-based information and technologies. Regulatory methods should encourage bilateral and regional approaches to strengthen and align pesticide regulatory systems with both the United States and international standard setting bodies. It is crucial for all interested parties (scientists, policy makers, federal agencies, etc.) to be closely involved with the on-going development and coordination of registration systems and trade standards to ensure that risks to human health and the environment are minimized, and benefits to global agricultural trade are realized. Unfortunately, the alignment of pesticide regulations and standards is currently disharmonized. Different countries and regions of the world have different approaches for assessment. Such differences make it more challenging to uniformly protect stakeholders and the environment, and ultimately create unnecessary barriers to innovation, acceptance, and trade. Specifically, access to new, low-risk pesticide products continues to be challenging for farmers. Even when products are available, farmers face trade barriers when residue or trade standards differ across borders or do not exist in export markets. Efforts to build regulatory capacity and encourage the adoption of import tolerances and Codex Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs), when appropriate, will help reduce trade barriers and ensure critical pest management tools are available to farmers everywhere.
The purpose of this program is to work towards pesticide harmonization, as aligned trade standards will best support exports of U.S. agricultural products to foreign markets and ensure sound regulation and proper stewardship, ultimately ensuring the responsible and sustainable use of pest management tools world-wide. Our goals are to support an innovation- and trade- friendly regulatory environment – one that is predictable, transparent, and guided by sound science. Science-based regulation is the most effective way to ensure farmers have the choice of the best available pest management technologies to help them meet their own agricultural and economic needs in a sustainable way.

The goal of the fellow’s research is to developed methodology applying UV and/or visible lights as
abiotic stress in tomato plants to increase the bioactive compound synthesis (carotenoids, flavonoids and
phenolic acids) with antioxidant capacity.

I intend to provide a virtual study abroad opportunity during the spring 2023 semester. NC State students will gain understanding of Bangladesh people – their lives and culture; food and agricultural systems; and higher education and Extension systems. I anticipate a similar experience for BAU students in learning about North Carolina. The COIL resources and expertise will be an abundant resource for me to expand my skills and develop this exciting academic program. The action plan uses the 5D format (discover, define, design, develop, and deliver), as follows:  

Discover – spring 2022

• Review action plan with Mr. David Dixon and Dr. Heidi Hobbs.
• Complete SUNY-COIL introductory webinar.
• Apply for NC State Internationalization Seed Grant program to fund activities for this new partnership between NC State and BAU. It is my hope that the Internationalization Seed Grant will support development of an exceptional COIL while also fostering greater collaborative work with BAU including study abroad, research proposals, and other scholarly activities.
• Complete SUNY-COIL Foundations Workshop.

Define – spring 2022

• Identify potential ways to promote dialog and collaboration as part of Agricultural and Human Sciences (AEHS) 523, Adult Education in Agriculture and the BAU corresponding course (an Extension Education course similar to AEHS 523) with Dr. Farouque. 

• Identify potential ways to promote collaboration among NC State and BAU graduate students studying Extension education.
• Define specific learning outcomes for collaborative, online international learning to achieve greater global fluency among students and faculty.

Design – summer/fall 2022

• Design collaborative, online international learning experiences and assignments as part of AEHS 523 and the BAU corresponding course with Dr. Farouque. 
• Met with NC State Study Abroad to explore a face-to-face study abroad for Maymester 2023 in Bangladesh focused on Extension education, climate-smart agriculture, and culture.

Develop – fall 2022

• Explore completion of the SUNY-COIL Design course in collaboration with Dr. Farouque.
• Develop specific course components: team building, discussion, student project, and evaluation/reflection.
• Explore NC State Study Abroad in Bangladesh with Dr. Farouque.

Deliver – spring 2023

• Deliver a collaborative, online learning experience for AEHS 523 and BAU corresponding course.
• Plan and conduct scholarship in coordination with Dr. Farouque inclusive of conference proceedings, presentations, and journal articles. 
• Describe successes and lessons learned to NC State and BAU faculty.

At each phase (discover, define, design, develop, and deliver), I will consult with NC State experts as needed. Dr. David L. Jordan, William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, is serving as expert consultant for this project. In support of this project, Mr. David Dixon and Dr. Heidi Hobbs are serving as experts, coordinators, and navigators in the Office of Global Engagement. Additionally, I will make ample use of SUNY-COIL resources, including the monthly meetings.

The GEI aligns with my research, academic programs, and Extension programs in a number of important ways. As I coordinate the Extension Education undergraduate minor, this work will enable me to enrich students with greater global fluency skills. This work will help me to infuse greater diversity and cultural competencies in all of my interactions with Extension professionals. This work will enlarge my research of career pathways in food, agriculture, natural resources, and human sciences. Furthermore, I anticipate that this work will produce considerable scholarship and will catalyze funding proposals for an expanded Extension education portfolio with my BAU colleagues.    

The objective of PHENEC is to determine how phenology shapes the spatial distribution of species in a changing climate, by considering the increase in both, mean temperature and temperature variability. Our research hypothesis is that variability in phenology drives species distribution and notably their spread rates.By changing the time window of some biological stages, the population could either survive better and accelerate the range expansion to favorable nearby areas, or instead, individuals could be exposed to more stressful conditions leading to the decrease of population abundance, and thus range pinning or even contraction. In PHENEC, we will consider the pine processionary moth (PPM), Thaumetopea pityocampa (Denis & Schiffermüller) (Lepidoptera, Notodontidae) as our biological model (see section 1c.). Mmodel simulations, based on observations and experimentations, will be conducted to reveal these underlying mechanisms.

Hosting Borlaug Fellow, Assel Yessimseitova, Research Scientist with the National Center for Biotechnology of Kazakhstan for a 12-week training at North Carolina State University.  The fellowship was designed to train on identifying new genes associated with grain quality, productivity, and disease resistance. Following Assel's 12 weeks in North Carolina at the Mountain Horticulture Research Extension Center working with Dr. Dilip Panthee, Dr. Panthee will conduct a reciprocal visit to Kazakhstan to continue the research collaboration. 

• External MS Reviewer for Ana Castellan MS (Macquarie University, Australia) Summer 2023
•  
• External PhD Reviewer for Angie Jarmin (University of Sydney, Australia) Fall 2023

Attended and presented research findings at the Food Chemistry and Technology Conference in Paris, France.  Was able to make new connections with food scientists from France, Spain, Chile, Perú, and Thailand.

Invited Lecturer in the master program 'Sustainable Agriculture' at the University of Padua in Italy (Department of Agronomy Food Natural Resoucres Animals and Environment). This is an internation project. This is an international program funded by the European Union.  Three 2-hour lectures were given on sustainable pest management of apples and peaches, and impact of pesticide residues on food safety and pest management programs.

Thorough evaluation of the research and development activities conducted by the World Vegetable Center in the past 8 years.  The review was conducted both remotely (review of publications, reports, project proposals, etc.) and in person (visits to HQ in Taiwan, and research programs in Thailand, Tanzania and Benin)

The first purpose of this trip was to strengthen existing research collaborations with a faculty member from the University of Manizales and with a coffee researcher from Cenicafé who had previously spent two months working in my lab in Fall 2022.  Interactions with these researchers have resulted in manuscript drafts we are in the process of publishing.

The second purpose was to explore the opportunity for two-month study abroad experiences for NC State undergraduates.  Planning for this experience is ongoing.

I will lead a group of professional engineers (& perhaps landscape architects) to Spain in October to visit multiple Roman engineering works from antiquity. I expect 12 to 18 people to register & attend the study tour.

NSF of USA and NSF of China supported "Dimensions of Biodiversity -US-China" for collaborative study of biogeography and evolution of woody genera in eastern Asia and eastern North America.

I am the PFR Principal Investigator/Network Liaison for AI2EAR  - the liaison between genomics/metabolomics/human health research scientists at Plant & Food Research Ltd (a Crown Research Institute) in New Zealand and the NCSU contingent in this NSF sponsored inititiative.  AI2EAR establishes networks and shared missions/goals around research training and education in global food production enterprises.  

USDA-FAS Borlaug Felloship Program researching “ Weaken wheat phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) gene promotor by Homology Directed Repair (HDR) CRISPR-Cas9 technology to obtain more economical and effective biofuiel production”. The training activitives include literature studies to learning plant phenylpropaoid pathway, CRISPR/Cas9, and CRISPR/Cpf1, training in molecular biology and bioinformatics, promoter sequence analysis, identification of protospacer adjacent motif (PAM), and development callus culture of bread wheat, expression profiling of 37 PAL genes in bread wheat tissues, CRISPR/Cas9 and CRISPR/Cpf1 construct developments, genetic transformation of wheat callus and validation of gene editing. By the end of this program, the fellow, Ekin Demiray, who will be working with Dr. Deyu Xie, will gain sufficient training to learn how to develop genome editing research back to their own campus.

USDA-FAS Borlaug Fellship Program with a Fellow from Mexico, Dr. Adriana Sanchez Espindola who participated in a 12-week training at North Carolina State University with Dr. Katie Jennings. The fellowship program was designed to develop a procedure for extrapolating internationally adopted MRLs for crops that are related to crops of economic importance for export to Mexico, and for which there are no authorized MRLs.  This program will follow the fellow’s research objective to help guide the technical staff involved in the field of agriculture, to the generation of robust and specific information and procedures for Mexico on the subject of MRLs.

USDA-FAS Borlaug Fellowship Program will work with Dr. Pablo Delgado Sanchez of Mexico and Dr. Oliver Baars to investigate heavy metal accumulation and toxicity in tomato through stimulating the production of phenolic and antioxidant metabolites via controlled light-irradiation in the greenhouse.  Through the fellowship,  Dr. Delgado will spend 12 weeks at NC State to quantify and characterize light-induced phenolics and antioxidants in tomato tissue and in tomato root exudates with the aim to reduce toxic metal accumulation in the fruit.  After the fellowship, Dr. Baars will conduct a reciprocal visit to Mexico to continue the research collaboration. 

USDA-FAS Borlaug Fellowship Program with Fellow, Dr. Kemal Melih Taskin, Head of the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics from Canakkale 18 Mart University in Canakkale, Turkiye and mentor Dr. Hamid Ashrafi.  Through te 12 week fellowship goal was to determine the function of the genes involve in one of the components of apomixis through complementation analysis.  After the fellowship at NC State, Dr. Ashrafi would then conduct a reciprocal visit to the research laboratories in Turkey to maintain research collaborations. 

Collaboration with COPEG (Panama), USDA-ARS and USDA-APHIS to develop improved male-only strains of the New World screwworm for the genetic biocontrol program that is based in Panama

The goal of this project is to obtain extensive information about Apomixis (an asexual reproduction system through seed) at the gene level using a natural apomict Boechera and Vaccinium species and engineer apomixis in sexual crop plants using the model system Arabidopsis thaliana. The Fellow has indicated that he is interested in using rockcress (Boechera sp.), and the mentor has added Blueberry and Cranberry (Vaccinium sp.) apomictic seed production mechanism. One of the impediments of blueberry production in the U.S. is the use of multiple cultivars and producers' dependencies in pollinators. Understanding apomixes in model plants such as A. thaliana and Boechera sp.  will help breed crop plants that do not require pollinators. Sexual reproduction advantage is being lost during apomictic fruit production; however, through Apomixis, the genes that have implications in evolutionary fitness can pass along. 

USDA-FAS Cochran Training Program with Egypt and Jordan covering the U.S. management practices in dairy and livestock pperations.The objective of this program is to educate the Fellows on bovine and/or dairy genetics, livestock management practices, and livestock nutritional inputs in the Egyptian and Jordanian markets. The goal of this program is to increase sales of dairy cow and livestock genetics, yellow corn, distillers dried grains, corn gluten and soybean, and increasing the Fellows’ capacity for agricultural research, extension, and improve the knowledge of U.S. livestock genetics in Egypt and Jordan.

I have estabished a collaborative project with Dr. Amir Sitzenberg, Israel. We have published a paper on our preliminary data, and applied for funding.  

The use of biocontrol agents to manage the many plant pathogens found in agricultural settings is very appealing to growers and consumers alike. Regrettably, the efficacy of promising candidates emerging from lab experiments is often several orders of magnitude lower in field conditions. Plants and soils harbor rich and very well adapted microbial communities. We propose that a main challenge to developing biological control is the protection of biocontrol microbes from the resident microbial community. This includes accounting for interactions between the biocontrol agent and members of the resident microbiota. To test this, we will build whole metagenome metabolic models to comprehensively describe the biochemical interactions within a microbial community. We will quantify the flux of metabolites as well as the growth and survival of microbes. Comprehensive microbial metabolic models of diseased plants and the soil they inhabit can promote the accurate identification of promising biocontrol-agent candidates, before they undergo costly and time consuming field trials. Microbial metabolic models can further pinpoint additives, in the form of biochemicals or co-cultures, that will support the novel biocontrol agent in field conditions. We have collected longitudinal DNA samples from the soil and root in two crops and sites, to characterise the microbial diversity of our study system (root-knot nematode infected plants). We will developing whole, metagenome metabolic models from the data, as a tool with which to assess biocontrol agents against root-knot nematodes, and improve their efficacy: model building is at the heart of this application. Whole genome metabolic models will be reconstructed by the Israeli partner and will be fine tuned by the American partner using their gene-expression and network expertise. Several nematicidal microbial isolates, both commercial and novel, will be scored by the models. The predictive power of the models will be established by comparing the performance of high scoring and low scoring isolates in a pot experiment based on root-knot nematode infested agricultural soil. The models will be made available online, in a graphic-user interface public system. 

Development of novel CRISPR/Cas9-based genetic systems for control of screwworm fly.

Development of cost effective and profitable groundnut production systems in Malawi funded by USAID.  Collaborating with the Lilongwe University for Agriculture and Natural Resources and Horizon Farms Ltd, Limbe Leaf, and Alliance One International.  This reserch project conducts research on various inputs into peanut systems at both commercials scales and small-holder farmer production in villages.

Teach Study Abroad class in Spain (BAE 495) from May 13 through June 2. Class is based in Mieres, Spain, with a week-long study tour that reaches Merida, Spain. I expect 8 to 15 students to join me. The course is hosted by the University of Oviedo.

I led a group of 10 undergrad students and 1 TA to Spain for a 3-week study abroad class on Roman Engineering & Infrastructure. The course was mostly conducted at the University of Oviedo, Mieres campus, with a 4.5-day study tour of Central/ Western Spain where we visited Roman sites in Las Medulas, Salamanca, Caceres, and Merida.

The PPM is native to the Mediterranean Basin, and as winters have become warmer over the last several decades, it’s been expanding its range farther north due to climate change. We partnered with Alain Roques in the Forest Zoology lab at the French National Institute for Agronomic Research (INRA) in Orléans, France, to try to figure out whether the warmer temperatures in cities are giving urban-dwelling PPM caterpillars an advantage and promoting range expansion.

I organize and run a study abroad program to Ireland. Unlike many of those who organize study abroad trips, I do all of the legwork. I create the schedule, book hotels, organize lectures, tours and sightseeing, and organize the bus and transportation. I do have a Teaching Assistant who helps - but I probably put close to 100 hours of work organizing, marketing, making reservations, etc, every time I run a study abroad. I do this to keep it personal with places that I think are good for the students, and in effort to keep costs down for the students. 

Visited Buenos Aires and Cordoba in order to set up a Study Abroad Program between the University of San Andrés and NC State University.

Asked to plan and present three lectures for the staff at the Guatemala Zoo to help advance their nutrition program (and work with their chimpanzees).

Advisor to the Tecnologico de Antioquia in support of their new career in Agronomy.  Supported by Fullbright

USDA-FAS Borlaug Fellowship Program working with Fellow, Sofiane Abdelhamid, Researcher from the Olive Institute in Tunisia and Dr. Hamid Ashrafi as the mentor.   Through this 12 week fellowship at NC State, the fellow is trained on latest genotyping technologies, bioinformatics analysis, and Tunisian olive germplasms.  Following the fellowship, Dr. Ashrafi conducts a reciprocal visit to Tunisia to maintin research collaboration. 

https://www.nextgencassava.org/who-we-are/

Olives (Olea europaea) are native to Mediterranean Europe, Asia, and Africa. The history of olive production in Tunisia dates back to the 8th century BC. In recent years, Tunisia has become an emerging country in producing high-quality olive oil due to a couple of reasons. The first reason is the diminishing of olive production in Italy due to Xylella fastidiosa, a devastating bacterial disease that has wiped out a large acreage of Italian olive orchards. The second reason is that Tunisia is located near Malta and Sicily in North Africa, where the climatic and soil conditions are favorable for its production. Olive orchards cover about one-third of Tunisia, which plays a significant role in the country’s agricultural economy. The production of olive oil has been doubled since 2019 to ~350,000 metric tons, placing the country second in production after Spain. There are two main olive cultivars in Tunisia, cv. ‘Chetoui’ is planted more in the north. It is very green, with high-quality oil and a grassy taste with a hint of artichoke flavor. The second cultivar, ‘Chemlali’ is more fruity and has hints of green almonds. It goes with everything and is not too dominating in dishes. Chemlali-type olive oil by Tunisia’s Olivko brand was named the best extra-virgin in the world in an award in the United States. There are approximately 2,600 different olive cultivars in the world germplasm collection, but olive genetic resources are poorly exploited and studied. Increasing our knowledge of olive tree genetics is a crucial step for breeding purposes and represents the future of olive growing. Our goal is to train the visiting scholar in the latest genotyping technologies, bioinformatics analysis, and Tunisian olive germplasms in this project.

Itinerary

NC Extension Master Gardener and other Gardeners to study horticulture in Costa Rica

SweetGAINS is an ambitious three-year project designed to modernize sweetpotato breeding in Africa. SweetGAINS will improve breeding operations and methodologies, ensure integration between breeding outputs and early generation seed availability, and strengthen a joint SpeedBreeders and Seed Community of Practice (CoP) by 2023.

Open Field Agrivoltaics with an Innovative Spectral Beam Splitting Solar Collector, bi national collaboration with Israel

USDA-FAS Cochran training of Turkish officials, academia, and industry representatives involved in the legislative policy-making processes on best  practices on the regulation of food and feed ingredients, with a focus on enzymes. The goal of this training was to increase  the Fellows’ capacity for food and agricultural research, extension, and teaching; assist Turkey in implementing  transparent, predictable, and science-based regulations for enzymes used as food and feed ingredients; and discuss  potential for regulatory pathways for all food and feed ingredients derived from biotechnology.

USDA-FAS Cochran training with Alegerian veterarians to increase their knowledge of the U.S. livestock industry certifications, standards, and disease management system to support U.S. – Algeria negotiations on livestock. The goal of this program was to increase Algeria’s capacity for agricultural research, extension, participation in international trade, and to improve the U.S. Algeria bilateral relationship

Every species on earth is directly or indirectly involved in a mutualism, that is, a mutually beneficial interaction between species. Understanding how climate change will affect mutualisms is necessary to conserve global biodiversity and the ecosystem services they provide. Mutualisms between insects and plants, which provide ecosystem services like pollination, seed dispersal and plant defense, may be particularly vulnerable to climate change in the tropics, due to environmental and climatic stresses. However, these effects are notoriously difficult to test or predict. The goal of this study is to improve scientific understanding of how climate change may affect these beneficial interactions using cities as a proxy for anthropogenic climate change. Working in Puerto Maldonado, Perú—a fast-growing city in a biodiversity hotspot—we will study a specialized ant-plant interaction in which ants defend plants from herbivores in exchange for food and secure nesting space. Our objectives are to determine how 1) climate warming shapes the distribution and physiology of these plants and their ants; 2) how higher temperatures will affect each species’ investments in this interaction and 3) each species’ fitness. Our results will provide the first assessment of community-level ecological effects of recent, landscape-scale warming on tropical mutualists.

Collaboration to study the enzymatic mechanism of enzymes using neutron protein crystallography.

External evaluator for marine mammal nutrition PhD thesis.

Collaboration with Prof. Alice Vrielink to study the enzymatic mechanism of enzymes using neutorn protein crystallography.

Our lab hosted a visiting Centro Nacional de Investigaciones de Café - (Cenicafé) coffee scientist from Colombia whose work focused on understanding and minimizing mycotoxin contamination in green and roasted coffee beans.

I lead a group of professional engineers to Italy for a 1-week tour of Roman engineering and infrastructure sites from antiquity. 19 full registrants and 6 partial registrants participated.

• TBRC Collaborative research grant: Graduate student Melbert Schwarz visited Japan for a period of two weeks to conduct research on wood digestion in Panesthiine cockroaches 

SweetGAINS is an ambitious three-year project designed to modernize sweetpotato breeding in Africa. SweetGAINS will improve breeding operations and methodologies, ensure integration between breeding outputs and early generation seed availability, and strengthen a joint SpeedBreeders and Seed Community of Practice (CoP) by 2022.

Providing leadership on a new project funded by USAID through the Palldium Group in Washington D.C. to improve peanut seed production through research and training associated with the implementation of tech packages and drip irrigation.  Collaborating with ExAgris Africa, Ltd. and Horizon Farms in Malawi and leaf growers Limbe Leaf and Alliance One International.  

Collaborating with Stanford University on a project to assess private satellite images to determine plant health and yield potential for peanuts in Malawi.  This project funded by the Peanut Innovation Lab collaborates with major leaf growers Limbe Leaf and Alliance One Intl to provide field GPS perimeter data and yield data to scientists at Stanford to conduct image analysis and develop forecast models.

Delivered the opening talk (in Spanish, via Zoom) at the 2022 SiCTIA (Science, Technnology, and Engineering of Food) conference, entitled, "El Café: Procesos y Posibilidades" or Coffee Proceses and Possibilities.

Development and evaluation of male-only screwworm strains for the screwworm eradication program that is run by COPEG in Panama.

Overview: Understanding what determines the current distribution of biomes is fundamental for projecting how vegetation will respond to future climate and disturbance regimes. Tropical savanna-forest boundaries mark the transition between the two most extensive tropical biomes, yet the factors that determine the location, structure, and dynamics of these boundaries are poorly understood. Our understanding has been hindered by strong positive feedbacks and other non-linear processes that cause complex dynamics and hysteresis (i.e. the dependency of system not only on its current environment but also on its past environment). These legacy effects confound our ability to observe vegetation responses to environmental change.

The proposed research will combine field data and modeling to test for and quantify sources of hysteresis in savanna-forest dynamics. The aims of the research are (1) quantify key processes that underlie switches between savanna and forest states, (2) use this information to refine and parameterize the CLM(ED-SPITFIRE) model for simulating savanna-forest dynamics, and (3) perform simulations to understand environmental controls on the distribution of tropical savanna and forest, with emphasis on causes of hysteresis. This model represents the coupling of a demography-based ecosystem model (ED), a mechanistic model of fire occurrence (SPITFIRE), and a model of land surface processes (CLM) that can optionally be coupled to a general circulation model (CESM).

Much of the data needed to refine, parameterize, and validate the model are available from previous NSF-funded research. Gaps in this information will be resolved with a fire experiment at a natural savanna-forest boundary in Brazil. In the experiment, flammability trials will be used to understand thresholds that mediate vegetation-fire feedbacks. Measurements of biomass production and turnover will quantify the relative roles of primary productivity and mean residence time in governing biome shifts. Monitoring of tree dynamics will provide a more complete understanding of the distinct roles of savanna and forest tree species in these shifts.

Intellectual merit: The proposed research aims to understand the sources of hysteresis that confound projections of future vegetation dynamics in the seasonal tropics. This work will make it possible to systematically address uncertainties in modeling savanna-forest dynamics that result from climate feedbacks, fire feedbacks, plant demographic thresholds, and shifts in tree functional types. Furthermore, the field experiment will refine our understanding of ecological and biophysical thresholds that mark the transition between savanna and forest. The research team is uniquely qualified for this work because of the resources brought to the problem, including a state-of-the-art fire-vegetation model that can be coupled to a general circulation model, a growing database of comparative trait data of savanna and forest tree species, and a rare opportunity to establish a fire experiment at a savanna-forest boundary in Brazil.

Broader impacts: Savannas and evergreen forests are the most important tropical vegetation types in terms of area, biodiversity, total carbon stocks, and use by humans.  These biomes once covered 82% of the tropical land area and are home to approximately 40% of the global human population and perhaps 50% of all terrestrial species.

Despite an undeniable natural role of fire in tropical savannas, fire suppression is a standard policy in protected areas of savanna in Brazil. Many reserves, particularly those that are small and isolated, are undergoing succession to forest, and causing decline of species adapted to open environments. To promote the acceptance of the natural role of fire, we will prepare an article for the Brazilian popular science magazine Ciencia Hoje and a white paper to be distributed to managers of Brazilian savanna reserves and state ministers of environment. These documents will review the evidence for the natural role of fire and the consequences of fire suppression. As the project generates results, we will invite journalists to visit our study sites to inform the public of the natural role of fire in Brazilian savannas.

We will provide four US undergraduate students with international research experiences that will contribute directly to the research objectives of this proposal. In doing so, we will stimulate interest and expertise in tropical ecology among US students while fostering interactions that we hope will grow into long-term collaborations. 

Collaborated to collect chimpanzee data from as many animals as possible worldwide.

Heat stress is a major source of crop loss, especially in climate change and extreme weather scenarios. Plants can acquire tolerance to severe heat stress if previously exposed to moderate stress. 

A spatial assessment of heat stress risk has detected that crops in many regions, including Central North America and Brazil, would suffer increased heat stress due to climate changes (Teixeira et al., 2013, Agricultural and Forest Meteorology).  Strategies to mitigate food loss due to heat stress connect directly to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (Goal 2 - Zero Hunger and Goal 13 - Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts), that has “Food security and nutrition and sustainable agriculture” and “climate change” as topics of interest. Thus, knowledge about acquired thermotolerance in plants can improve food security, especially in climate change and extreme weather scenarios. 

Background:

• Since 2015, my China projects shift from HLB/ACP to the research intended to prevent fruit flies from China invade U.S.
• Fruit flies are among the most devastating agricultural pests world wide. The fruit fly such as the Oriental Fruit Fly, Bactrocera dorsalis, which widely occur in China, other Asian countries, and Hawaii, can cause huge economic and environmental issues if entering mainland of US. Preventing these pests from invasion of U.S. through trade and traveler relies on our knowledge and scientific understandings such as pest distribution, invasion biology, pest management, and risk mitigation options.
• USDA APHIS is keen in support research works which contribute the knowledge for prevent these pests from entering U.S., as well as developing techniques for detecting, survey, eradicate these pests.
• USDA APHIS $1.68 mil, $615,000 match fund and in-kind contribution from local Chinese governments and collaborators. Seven universities and research institutes in China, lab and field studies are being conducted in across China’s

What we did:

• Test lures in half region of China
  • Effective lure is the first defense if invasion occur
  • Field tests were conducted across China’s entire citrusproduction region
• Collect, bag, and cut 52,440 (46,400 mandarins, and 6,040 pomelo) citrus fruits in two provinces to study the effectiveness of different pest management techniques. No such a scale was ever conducted in China, might be one of the largest fruit cutting studies ever conducted in the world
• Study plant volatiles and insect pheromone of fruit fly to develop more potent lure. USDA APHIS CPHST Otis lab, Northwest A&F Univ, and Southwest University of China. First year field test demonstrated that a potential pheromone discovered by Otis Lab can enhance trapping efficacy significantly

Accomplishment & impact:

• Pre-active going to the country where potential severe threats are, before invasion occur
• Generated substantial scientific knowledge about severe invasive pests in case of invasion
• Discovering an urgent technical gap in defending U.S. agriculture, especially the citrus industry, from the invasion of a major pest fruit fly – no lure is effective in detecting low population of the pest, the implication can be significant in case of an invasion occur.
• Field trap tests were conducted in several locations across China
• For that reason, a new collaborative project just initiates with participation of USDA-APHIS-Center for Plant Health Science and Technology, Four Chinese institutes: Northwest A&F University, Southwest University, Guangdong Institute of Applied Biological Resources, and Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences to discover more effective lures for attracting the pest. Especially we are working on discovering plant volatiles and insect pheromones. Field experiment indicated one potential pheromone might be effective. And two potential plant volatiles are going to be tested in the field next year.
• A largest number of fruit cutting was ever conducted to study the efficacy of packinghouse culling and fruit bagging for managing the pest risk. This work was supported locally by then Chinese Academy of Inspection and Quarantine, Xiamen Customs, Hunan Customs, and Yang’s Enterprise Group.

This project has three M.S. students and four Ph.D. students from Santa Catarina State University working in different subprojects to create a friendly system for classification the risk of a given soil to become a source of environmental pollution. Many agricultural soils from Santa Catarina State, Brazil, receive animal wastes as fertilizers. Some of them accumulated over the years very high quantities of phosphorus. The objective of this project is to find a critical value of phosphorus in the soil when the fertilization should be stoped.  

I taught BAE 495 (Roman Engineering & Infrastructure), a study abroad class in Italy and NC in May & June 2022. We had 8 students enroll & participate in the class. Most in-class sessions were held in Raleigh, with a 1-week long study tour to Rome, Pompeii, and Naples, Italy.

Smallholder farming practices in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) include land-raised seed (piece) use, continuous cultivation (often monoculture) with limited inputs, and virtually non-existent seed (piece) treatment techniques. Yam (Dioscorea spp.) is the primary example of this cropping system and is an extremely important and valuable crop for smallholder farmers in SSA. These practices result in nutrient-depleted soils, nematode infestation, and ultimately low crop yields. Reducing the nematode population in crop soil will dramatically increase crop yield and quality. In many cases, smallholder farmers in SSA lose greater than 50% of their crop to plant-parasitic nematodes, primarily due to lack of available and affordable control options. For this BMG GCE Phase III proposal, we will build upon our promising results from Phase II trials, including increased yields and higher tuber quality and storability for both yam and potato, and use our expertise and connections for pulping banana fiber to validate and prepare for commercialization a developing-world transferable product platform enabling a field deployable paper-like seed (piece) treatment to combat plant pathogenic nematodes. In addition, this platform will be amenable to delivering other crop production moieties, including natural products and oils, necessary minerals and nutrients, or insecticides and fungicides, with its application. Our laboratories’ expertise in nematology and lignocellulosic fibrous materials enables us to target the delivery of beneficial small molecules during seed (piece) germination and plant establishment.  Importantly the incorporation of active ingredients into a lignocellulose matrix, such as banana tissue paper, allows for widespread distribution of crop protection agents without interfering in smallholder farming practices. The shelf-stable light-weight banana tissue paper can be applied at the point of seed (piece) planting where farmers can use the concept of “wrap and plant” with their own seeds/pieces. Our candidate ‘wrap and plant’ product will be an “active” paper sheet pretreated with ultralow concentrations of active nematicidal ingredient to simply wrap and protect the seed (piece) at planting.  The localization of active ingredients carried directly within the paper targets specific plant pathogenic nematodes versus beneficial organisms. Nematodes are primarily a seedling disease, so protection early is critical to the success of the crop, although post harvest losses do occur in yam due to the yam nematode (Scutellonema bradys). Reduction in nematode populations by deploying ‘wrap and plant’ will protect yam from significant infections that may lead to these post-harvest losses. Our ultimate goal is to validate the ‘wrap and plant’ candidate in Phase III and prepare to translate manufacture to a regional African company for commercialization and distribution.

Development and validation of CRISPR-harbpring bacteriphage for enhanced biocontrol of  Listeria in food-processing facilties.

I gave a talk in Spanish, via Zoom, to biotechnology students at Tec de Monterrey in Querétaro, Mexico entitled, "Platica sobre las similitudes entre la extracción de café y los procesos de cromatografía", or "The Similarities Between Coffee Extraction and Chromatography".

Analysing the molecular responses of rice plants to increased nighttime temperatures

Insecticides are the most common management tool for Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) infestations in Croatian potato. After decades of insecticide reliance, Colorado potato beetles throughout the country have developed varying levels of resistance to multiple insecticide modes of action. As a result, growers are dependent on broad spectrum insecticides that have significant negative impacts for human health and the environment. This project is a new collaboration between the University of Zagreb and my program to better understand the spatiotemporal patterns of insecticide resistance throughout the major vegetable producing areas of Croatia. We have leveraged existing bioassay data generated by colleagues in Croatia to identify where problematic Colorado potato beetle populations occur. Deliverable outcomes of this project will facilitate targeted extension messaging about Insecticide Resistance Management (IRM) and alternative Integrated Pest Management (IPM) activities to stem the negative consequences additional pesticide use.

I worked with a Farmer to Farmer team to develop training materials on feed formulation and layer nutrition. I provided general feed manufacturing presentations and a video on feed formulation, as well as technical advice for layer nutrition and formulation software to the liaison hosting the training. This project was conducted remotely due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Issue: The Extension System in Bangladesh is composed of the publicly-funded Department of Extension, non-governmental organizations, and a private provider (Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services). Bangladesh depends on a strong agricultural sector for prosperity, human health, and to raise the overall quality of life. The system has 14,000 local extension agents (Miah, 2015). The United States Agency for International Development has made strategic investments to enhance local capacity for effective Extension work (Huber, 2017). Great needs exist for improving the agricultural and Extension Education curriculum, and enhancing the entire Bangladesh Extension System.  

Methods and Actions: Dr. Joseph Donaldson collaborated with Dr. Mohammad Golam Farouque, Professor, Department of Agricultural Extension Education and Director, Bangladesh Agricultural University Extension Centre of Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) on a proposal to improve the University curriculum for Extension education and professional development for the country’s Extension agents. The proposal has been funded by the Fulbright Visiting Scholars Program, and this will allow Drs. Farouque and Donaldson to pursue collaborative Extension, research, and academic work at NC State, March to November, 2021. 

Results: Improving the Curriculum of Agricultural Extension Education Program and Modernizing Extension Systems in Bangladesh has been funded. Our next steps are to collaborate virtually to prepare for Dr. Farouque's March 2021 arrical. The major outcome of this work will be to improve Extension education, modernize extension systems, and enhance community engagement, to the benefit of all Bangladeshi citizens.

Funding: Fulbright Scholar Program of the United States Department of State

Contacts: Joseph L. Donaldson, Ph.D., Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist

Focus group event to capture the experiences of past Borlaug mentors, understand the lessons learned and the factors contributing to further improve the Borlaug Fellowship Program. 

Project focused on developing value chain projects for goundnut production, harvesting, storage and shelling programs in Ghana. This efforts i based on more than 20 years of intergrated research programming to bring these activities into comprehensive, sustainable production programs.   Link with several universities and research institutions in Ghana.

Fatma Gül earned her bachelor’s degree in Genetic and Bioengineering from Faith University, moving on to achieve her master’s degree in Plant Sciences from the University of Manchester.  She is employed by the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, specifically in the Biotechnology Research Institute, where her work is focused on the collection of data for plant genome study.

Fatma Gül applied for a Borlaug Fellowship that would allow her to visit the US and study bioinformatics at NC State using data Fatma Gül gathered from wheat in Turkey. Fatma Gül used that data in two labs during her visit, working with Hamid Ashrafi and Gina Brown-Guedira to explore bioinformatic wheat genome sequencing. To put simply, Fatma Gül says:

Borlaug Fellow, Dr. María-Elena Cazar works with Dr. De-Yu Xie, professor in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, in a project focused in the characterization of bioactive secondary metabolites from Ecuadorian cacao. The aim of this project is to increase the value of Ecuadorian cacao accessions by the characterization of polyphenols, and monitor polyphenols changes during artisanal cacao processing. María-Elena Cazar values this magnificent opportunity to work with Dr. De-Yu Xie, a renowned scientist in the field of natural products. This experience will be the first step in a fruitful scientific collaboration.

GEARS in North Carolina

Global Education, Academics, and Research Skills

Administered by the NC State University Global Training Initiative (GTI), the GEARS Program is a unique academic, research and cultural exchange program that enables academically gifted domestic and international students to experience campus life and academic research at universities across North Carolina. Participants in this non-degree and non-credit program have a rich on-campus experience, participate in a variety of cultural and social programs, explore research relevant to programs at their home institution and present their work via a judged poster presentation exhibit. There are several sessions to choose from in Winter (January or February), Summer (May to August), and Fall (August to December).

China becomes a major source of agricultural pest and disease invasions to U.S. (and vice versa)

• Exponential increasing in trade and human traffic from China
• Climate similarity between U.S. and China
• Pre-active measure is the most effective in preventing further biological invasions
• After invasion of huanglongbing (HLB, aka citrus greening, is a very devastating disease--the most severe threat to the U.S. citrus industry with no known cure. The disease was first reported in China about 100 years ago) into U.S. and threat the survival of the multi billion $ U.S. citrus industry, Dr. Ronald Sequeira, associate deputy administrator (then a National Science Program Leader) of USDA APHIS, came to me with a simple question: how can we work together saving U.S. citrus industry fighting this devastating HLB disease. Can we get some basic information out of China where the disease was first reported about 100 years? NCSU – USDA team was formed accordingly.

A total 14 of grants (2010 – present) by USDA-APHIS with a total of funding $3.01 million, another $1.8 match fund and in-kind of support from China.
Focus on two major scientific issues:

• Understanding HLB epidemiology, pest management, and the insect vector in China
• Study of the biology and pest risk mitigation of fruit flies for preventing these pests from invasions of U.S.

The primary rationale for this research project is to answer following scientific questions such as:

• What are the disease epidemiology as well as the current status of the occurrence of the disease and the vector insect, the Asian citrus psyllid, in China?
• How does Chinese manage the disease/vector? Which measures are effective, which are not such as natural enemies of the pysllids?
• Is there resistance citrus species/cultivar to the disease?
• This 4-year projects established a broad collaboration team, with participation of all Chinese universities and research institutes (a total of 12) which were involved in HLB research, such as South China Agri. University, Guangdong Entomological Institute, Fujian Academy of Agri. Sciences, Guangxi Citrus Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agri. Sciences….
• About $1.4 mil funded by USDA APHIS, and another $1.2 mil match fund and in kind of contribution from local Chinese universities and the provincial governments of Guangdong and Fujian
• Field and lab studies were conducted across entire HLB occurrence region in Southern China

The primary rationale for this research project is to answer following scientific questions such as:

• What are the disease epidemiology as well as the current status of the occurrence of the disease and the vector insect, the Asian citrus psyllid, in China?
• How does Chinese manage the disease/vector? Which measures are effective, which are not such as natural enemies of the pysllids?
• Is there resistance citrus species/cultivar to the disease?

This 4-year projects established a broad collaboration team, with participation of all Chinese universities and research institutes (a total of 12) which were involved in HLB research, such as South China Agri. University, Guangdong Entomological Institute, Fujian Academy of Agri. Sciences, Guangxi Citrus Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agri. Sciences….

About $1.4 mil funded by USDA APHIS, and another $1.2 mil match fund and in kind of contribution from local Chinese universities and the provincial
governments of Guangdong and Fujian.

Field and lab studies were conducted across entire HLB occurrence region in Southern China.

In this transitional stage in the egg industry, producers are scrambling to address public concerns of the day. How does sustainability relate to cage, cage-free or free-range production? These changes impose recognition of bias, risks on business, economics, and affects their sustainability decisions. Sustainability definitions have changed significantly over the last 45 years. The first definition was “to keep up or keep going, as an action or process; or to supply with food, drink, and other necessities of life”. Three recent publications have supported this original definition. The laying hens today are smaller, better livability, higher and persistent levels of production, produce larger eggs with better shell quality, and with better feed efficiency resulting in less waste production. These documented changes have taken place over time, as breeding companies applied quantitative genetic selection to improve performance of their hens. These sustainability changes were due to genetic selection, understanding of nutrition, and improved vaccinations for diseases that have taken place over the years. However, today’s definition of sustainability as “the ability to maintain at a certain rate or level and the avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to maintain an ecological balance” is changing the US egg industry’s systematic assessment of production system sustainability. The public focus, driven by the 25 to 35 year age group is having a dramatic effect on the egg industry in the US. Sustainability for them means being responsible stewards of land, water and feed management, and maintaining and advocating for the humane treatment of our most important asset: our chickens. The goals of the egg industry is to meet the needs and expectations of the future generation and to feed the earths growing population with less land and reduced use of resources. How to balance hen well-being with increasing food demands, decreasing environmental impacts, improving the social and economic well-being of agricultural communities are imperative while helping improve human health as components of sustainability.

Key Words: Egg Industry, Egg Production, Sustainability, Societal Influence

Grand trip to Australia..  Emerging plant diseases threaten many foods crops including those we eat for breakfast such as coffee, oranges, banana and potatoes.  Plant pathogens cause global losses estimated to be as high as $33 billion per year. The risk of introduction of pathogens into the US with trade requires continued monitoring and improved diagnostic capabilities at our borders.  Phytophthora infestans, the causal agent of potato late blight was responsible for the Irish potato famine and is still a threat to food security globally.  We have developed a disease surveillance and mapping system called USAblight.org to report disease outbreaks in the USA and alert stakeholders. The US populations are dominated by the largely mefenoxan sensitive US-23 clonal lineage.  We identified and tracked the spread of the historic FAM-1 lineage of P. infestans using multilocus genotyping, next generation sequencing, geospatial analytics and data mining methods. The FAM-1 lineage caused both US and European historic outbreaks, shared allelic diversity and grouped with the oldest samples collected in Colombia, and formed a genetic group that was distinct from more recent aggressive lineages.  Novel detection technologies combined with digital agriculture and bioinformatics tools will help mitigate outbreaks, improve deployment of host resistance and inform policy.

Travel was funded by Grain Research Developemnt Corpration (GRDC) and following Universities visited: Department of Plant Industries Research and Development, South Perth; Murdoch Unitversity;  University of Adelaide and Waite Institute; AgrBio, LaTribe University; Ecosciences Precinct, Queensland University; and The University of Sydney

Emerging plant diseases threaten many foods crops including those we eat for breakfast such as coffee, oranges, banana and potatoes.  Plant pathogens cause global losses estimated to be as high as $33 billion per year. Jean Ristaino discussed the latest research on P. infestans, the pathogen that caused the Irish famine and other plant diseases and their impact on global food security at 7 universities.

Invited speaker 32nd Australian Poultry Science Symposium

En Arequipa se encuentran dos especies de vegetales nativas de gran valor económico, que en nuestra localidad poca importancia se le da, sin embargo, a nivel internacional lupinos presenta alto impacto por su elevado contenido de proteínas y Chenopodium por su riqueza en el contenido de aminoácidos rico en azufre, estos dos productos presentan grandes propiedades nutricionales. Estas plantas presentan la capacidad de crecer en lugares con poco abono, tal es así que Lupinus es un género que desarrolla simbiosis con bacterias fijadoras de nitrógeno y dentro de un plan de rotación de cultivos se puede cultivar especies del género Chenopodium para el aprovechamiento de los nutrientes. Sin embargo, plantas del género Lupinus y Chenopodium presentan sustancias antinutricionales como los alcaloides y saponinas respectivamente, considerados como elementos antinutricionales, así mismo aún existe poca información sobre las ruta de acumulación de estos productos en las semillas. En la actualidad existen técnicas que permiten apagar genes de forma directa y específica, las repeticiones palindrómicas cortas agrupadas espaciadas regularmente o por sus siglas en inglés CRISPR/CAS (Clustered regulary Interspaced short palindromic repeats), es una técnica moderna de edición de genes con alta especificidad, esta técnica nos permitirá identificar los genes implicados en la biosíntesis y transporte de alcaloides y saponinas, la edición de estos genes permitirá disminuir la concentración de estas sustancias antinutricionales. El producto final de la investigación será obtener dos nuevas variedades nativas de Lupinus y Chenopodium con semillas de alta concentración de proteínas y baja concentración de alcaloides y saponinas. Par conseguir este objetivo, tomaremos muestras de semilla de Lupinus y Chenopodium de la región de Arequipa, y cuantificamos la concentración de proteínas totales alcaloides y saponinas de Lupinus y Chenopodium respectivamente. Ell análisis bioinformático de los mapas genómicos de Lupinus Angustifolium y Chenopodium quinoa nos permitirá identificar las secuencias de los genes implicados en la síntesis temprana de los alcaloides y saponinas, así como sus transportadores asociados para poder sintetizar primer´s conservados y estos serán utilizados en nuestras variedades nativas, para amplificar dichos genes, los productos genéticos obtenidos serán secuenciados y a partir de ellos sintetizan los RNA guías para realizar el constructo con el sistema CRISPR, con estos constructos se realizará las ediciones de Lupinus y Chenopodium, y se seleccionarán aquellas líneas segregantes con baja cantidad de alcaloides y saponinas y con elevadas concentraciones de proteínas, libres del transgen.

Related releases of this project:

-Oak Ridge National Laboratory:

https://neutrons.ornl.gov/content/spinach-used-neutron-studies-could-unearth-secret-stronger-plant-growth

-Sweden:

https://www.uu.se/en/news-media/news/article/?id=12174&area=5,10,16,17,34&typ=artikel&lang=en

Country Leader, Connecting Research, Education, and Outreach (CREdO) - Peru

CALS International Programs is pursuing an innovative model for global engagement. The approach leverages the momentum and positioning of upper-middle-income countries that have fast-growing economies, but have struggled to grow their agricultural research, education, and outreach systems. Project Peru specifically is a CALS initiative in partnership with Concytec (National Council for Science and Technology, Lima, Peru), the Foreign Agricultural Service (US Embassy, Lima, Peru), INIA (National Institute for Agricultural Research, Lima, Peru), and the International Potato Center (Lima, Peru) to develop collaborations between NCSU researchers and extension specialists with their counterparts in Peru in order to strengthen research and extension capacities in Peruvian universities and research centers countrywide. 

Overview.  Researchers have largely ignored close-range courtship behavior by male moths, including the release of close-range sex pheromones, female assessment of the male pheromone, preference, and ultimately acceptance or rejection of the male. This renewal is based on our discovery of novel ‘minor’ compounds in the male pheromone gland with major behavioral effects. While some of these compounds share biosynthetic origins with female-produced pheromones, others are chemically unrelated and appear to be sequestered from larval and adult food. Males appear to use complex close-range signaling that provides females with a dual assessment of the male’s ability (a) of de novo biosynthesis of pheromone compounds similar to hers, and (b) to acquire essential amino acids, and grow on a well-defended plant. We propose to investigate the new male compounds as a novel class of sexual signaling molecules in insects, and to determine how they affect male reproductive success and female choice.

Intellectual Merit.  Three major questions in animal sexual communication are: What features of close-range male sexual signals affect female choice? What information do components of the male’s complex signal convey to the female? Is the production of male sexual signals biochemically and genetically linked to production of female signals? Answers to these questions are critical not only for understanding the roles of reciprocal signaling and mate choice in the evolution of sexual communication systems in animals, but will also lead to a better understanding of how the evolution of mating preferences can lead to premating isolation among populations, and ultimately to the origin of new species. Our overall goal is to understand sex pheromone communication by integrating research at the proximate/reductionist level with experimental and observational research in the field, and with research that addresses ultimate/evolutionary questions. That is, we are interested in elucidating the chemical structures of signal molecules and blends, quantifying behavioral acts and their integration into attractant and courtship displays, understanding mechanisms of pheromone production and reception, and identifying genes that underlie all these processes. At the ultimate level, we seek to understand the evolution of pheromone blends in females and response profiles in males across closely related species and among populations. Many moth species are important pests in agricultural crops; therefore this research has practical significance for society. This project integrates insect mate choice with insect-plant interaction strategies. By signaling to the female at close-range with plant-sequestered compounds, males advertise to females that they have fed on a well-defended plant and that they possess the ability to cope with plant defenses. Moreover, by transferring these plant compounds to his mate, she in turn may provision them to her eggs, inhibit local microbial growth at the oviposition site, and downregulate local plant defenses. The integration of research on female choice with de novo biosynthesized male pheromonal signals and plant-sequestered compounds is innovative and transformative in the chemical ecology/ethology community.

Broader Impacts. This project will train a postdoctoral researcher and a graduate student in a multidisciplinary environment that includes electrophysiology, quantitative analysis of behavior, chemical ecology, and genetics. A unique feature of this project is the collaboration with the University of Amsterdam and the Max Planck Institute of Chemical Ecology, which will offer the postdoctoral researcher and graduate student unique opportunities in evolutionary, chemical, and molecular biology, insect physiology, behavior, neurobiology, and plant and analytical chemistry. The project will recruit undergraduates from underrepresented minorities from NCSU and nearby HBUs. We will conduct outreach programs, including hands-on interactive exercises and discussions in biology, live insects and microscopes, and work with the students on biodiversity, insect behavior, and evolutionary biology. Finally, this project will be highlighted in many public education and engagement events in which trainees in this project will participate; these include BugFest, the largest STEM education program in the US (~35,000 participants annually), Science Cafés, the Science of Attraction (300 participants in 2014), and other public education programs.

Phlebotomine sand flies transmit protozoan parasites (Leishmania spp.), bacterial (Bartonella bacilliformis), and viral pathogens. An alternative approach to the traditional delivery of an insecticide to the vector is to bring the vector to the insecticide using an attractant. In the context of controlling vector-borne disease, oviposition-site attractants are expected to be highly effective because they target gravid females that are responsible for transmission of the pathogen and amplifying vector populations. Decomposing organic matter is the main food source for sand fly larvae. Central to our ongoing and proposed research is the proposition that natural selection has tuned the olfactory system of gravid females to odorants emanating from optimal oviposition substrates that indicate suitable conditions and nutrients for larval development. We therefore hypothesize that gravid sand flies are differentially attracted in a dose-dependent manner to a blend of fecal- and microbially-derived chemical cues associated with the decomposition of fecal material, as well as to signals from eggs and larvae which indicate suitable oviposition sites. Our overall goal is to develop and optimize an attractive blend of semiochemicals that would function as a lure for oviposition-site seeking sand fly females using Ph. papatasi (vector of old-world cutaneous leishmaniasis) as a model system. We will apply an integrated interdisciplinary approach including behavioral, electrophysiological, and microbiological studies to systematically address the following specific aims:

(1)    Identify the most attractive and oviposition stimulating conspecific stages, rearing medium, and saprophytic microbes;

(2)    Isolate and identify oviposition attractants and stimulants from the most attractive conspecific stage, rearing medium, and microbial isolates; and

(3)    Develop an optimal blend of oviposition attractants and stimulants and evaluate it at the micro- and meso-scales.

This proposed study introduces several novel and innovative approaches including: (1) Application of an integrated approach including behavioral, electrophysiological, analytical and microbiological investigations; (2) Study a neglected aspect of oviposition – the role of saprophytic fungi as indicators of suitable oviposition sites; (3) Evaluate the effectiveness of the optimized blends at the scale of meters using a wind-tunnel. Success of this study will set the stage for the next project – a field test of these blends – and would eventually contribute to relieving morbidity and mortality due to sand fly transmitted pathogens.

This 3-month program evaluation involved weekly meetings with the Nutrition and Food Industries faculty and culminated in presentations that evaluated both programs and included potential opportunities for collaborative projects.

Adaptación al cultivo marino en jaulas flotantes de Anisotremus scapularis “chita”: formulación de alimento y análisis de crecimiento – hacia un producto con trazabilidad

This project, funded by PNIPA and private contributors; focuses on four objectives:

Understanding and Optimizing Production of Chita in Floating Cages in the Marine Environment

Forumlating a Diet for this Species

Developing a System to Enhance Traceability of the Fish, Growers and Processing/Transport

Enhancing Capabilities and HUman Capital of Local Fishermen in such Installations.

The project includes NCSU CALS, Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina (UNALM); Organizacion en Pro del Desarrollo Sostainable de la Acuicultura in el Peru (PRO Acuicultura), and collaborators.

Named participants include Anibal VErastegui, Steve Hall, Harry Daniels, Luis Icochea, Angel Rivera, Carlos Sotomayor, Matthew Campbell, Leonard Nelson, and Zacarias Alarcon.

CURSO DE REDACCIÓN DE ARTÍCULOS DE INVESTIGACIÓN SEGÚN ESTÁNDARES INTERNACIONALES PARA SU PUBLICACIÓN EN REVISTAS INDIZADAS DE ALTO IMPACTO EN ACUICULTURA: This course focuses on capacity building for faculty in Peru (multiple universities), and includes pre-course meetings; an in person course (given Feb 2020 by S. Hall and H. Burrack) to improve publishing in international journals.  Followup through summer 2020 will ensure maximum impact. Lead Peruvian PI is Dr. Patricia Gil Kodaka, contract 320-2019 PNIPA

This course was an intense 4 day short course with 31 students and two instructors, resulting in publications ready or near ready for submission to peer reviewed journals.  Since that time, during 2020 and early 2021, Hall has been guest editor of a special issue of the Journal of the World Aquaculture Society on Peruvian Aquaculture, expected 2021. Virtual work before and after the February 2020 in person course rounded out the work.  Dr. Gil Kodaka from La Molina University Peru and collaborators provided excellent support for this unique and valuable project.

Monitor and analyze particular matter emissions from swine production houses to quantify emission rate, chemical composition and potential sources of the emission of PM.

Overview.  The sensory systems of animals guide adaptive decisions about choice of food, habitat and potential mates. The gustatory system detects and discriminates among tastants that convey information about the quality and nutritional value of food. Gustatory receptor neurons (GRNs) are housed within hair-like sensilla in insects that are broadly distributed on chemosensory organs. GRNs can be defined by their modal taste specificity (e.g., sugar- or bitter-GRN) based on the gustatory receptors (GRs) they express. Each specific taste cell projects an axon directly to the central nervous system and guides acceptance and rejection of tastants.

Taste polymorphisms are often described as changes in sensitivity of GRNs within a taste modality, with phenotypes ranging from highly sensitive to completely insensitive to a particular compound. The proposed project addresses a unique gain-of-function natural polymorphism that results in a highly adaptive behavior. In response to selection with baits, populations of the obligatorily commensal German cockroach Blattella germanica have developed behavioral deterrence to glucose and fructose, two universal phagostimulants. This trait is heritable, the rejection behavior is elicited by glucose or fructose alone, and the trait confers significant fitness advantage under selection pressure of glucose- or fructose-containing baits. This project will delineate mechanisms in the peripheral gustatory system responsible for this unusual phenotype with systematic electrophysiological, behavioral, morphological, genetic and molecular analyses. The project will test the hypotheses that (a) glucose and fructose are processed as deterrents by GRNs, (b) different taste organs differ in their GRN organization, contributing to effective processing of tastants as appetitive and aversive stimuli, and (c) that the molecular mechanism(s) that underlie this neuronal change involves either mis-expression of sugar-GRs on bitter GRNs or modifications of bitter-GRs on bitter-GRNs for affinity for glucose or fructose.

Intellectual Merit.  This research is significant to neuroethology and evolutionary biology because it will describe how persistent anthropogenic selection in an urban setting can result in rapid neuronal changes in gustatory function that support new behaviors and new food choices. The proposed research is the first in any animal to (i) characterize rapid changes in the gustatory system that have resulted in the emergence of a new adaptive behavior; (ii) describe in detail a novel system where a single stimulus at the same intensity mediates opposite appetitive and aversive responses by activating different neurons of the same sensory modality; and (iii) characterize the best understood case of behavioral resistance in animals. Finally, studies of the gustatory system in cockroaches, a primitive hemimetabolous lineage, will contribute to a broader understanding of insect gustation that so far has centered mainly on holometabolous and more highly advanced Diptera and Hymenoptera.

Broader Impacts.  Although behavioral resistance is often cited as a major impediment to efficacious pest control, especially of disease vectors, the mechanisms that underlie behavioral resistance are not known. Our recent Science paper and the proposed research represent the clearest delineation of sensory mechanisms that underlie the rapid emergence of a behavioral resistance trait in animal populations. We will recruit and train undergraduates through NCSU’s Honors, HHMI, Caldwell Scholars and Park Scholars programs. Graduate students will be recruited through listserves and local Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Cockroaches are excellent ‘charismatic’ subjects for outreach and STEM activities. STEM outreach activities will include BugFest (35,000 participants annually in one day), Science Cafés, press releases, and the popular media. We have developed several modules on olfactory and gustatory responses of insects to sex pheromones and foods, and the interaction between human-imposed selection and rapid evolutionary adaptations, and we have presented outreach activities at local K-12 schools in disadvantaged communities. In collaboration with faculty at the NC School of Science and Math, we are developing hands-on integrated neurophysiology-behavior modules for NC high schools, and behavioral and electrophysiological assays of glucose-aversion have been incorporated into Insect Physiology and Insect Behavior courses. Our findings are being incorporated into several textbooks and apps on Neurobiology, Behavior and Evolution.

Co-wrote a grant proposal to the Brazilian government in 2018 with a (then) PhD student for the purpose of conducting a clinical trial on coffee's health effects.  After the student graduated with her PhD we were able to find an alternate funding source.  She came to the US to begin her post-doctoral experience in my lab in 2019.  Together, we re-wrote the original proposal and secured IRB approval for the trial.  The clinical trial project is scheduled to begin in March of 2020 and to be completed by the end of August of 2020.

The Commission for the Eradication and Prevention of screwworm (COPEG), was created by a Cooperative Agreement signed on February 11, 1994, between Panama and the United States, which became Republic Act (No. 13, May 6, 1999) and subsequently recognized as International Mission.

COPEG objectives are defined in two stages: Elimination and Prevention of screwworm (NWS) in the Republic of Panama, without harming the environment. On July 12, 2006, the country was declared free of the plague and it was the opening of Sterile Fly Production Plant in Pacora.

The Panama plant is the cornerstone of prevention and ensure the maintenance of the biological barrier of sterile flies, which remains from the Province of Darien to 20 nautical miles inside Colombian territory, which is supported by a ground surveillance system. Both activities, in order to safeguard Panama and the rest of the countries of Central and North America of the pest reinfestation.

In addition to these objectives, the organization takes the Epidemiological Monitoring of Vesicular Disease and Prevention of FMD and other emerging diseases of interest to both countries.

Remotely advising student (Sarah Chilungo) conducting research at International Potato Center, Nairobi, Kenya, and collaborating with staff schientists at that facility.

Significance/Relevance

Birgand’s program has developed world-leading high-frequency field sampling technologies to capture the temporal variability of flow and concentrations combining newly commercially available in-situ high frequency (e.g., 15 min) spectrophotometers with smart statistical techniques. This has lowered uncertainty on the bulk trend at an unprecedented and remarkable level, but would tremendously benefit from complementary approaches.

While on sabbatical leave in the fall of 2017 at the University of Bristol, UK, Dr. Birgand had a chance to connect several times with Dr. Krause and his team at the University of Birmingham, UK. Dr. Krause’s lab pioneers the development of fluorescence based smart tracer systems that are used to analyze the microbial and metabolic processes occurring in streams and at the sediment-water interface that control nutrient spiraling and pollutant turnover. The application of Dr. Krause’s smart tracer technologies therefore provide a unique opportunity to be combined with Dr. Birgand’s sampling technologies and high-frequency detection of solute concentrations in order to for the first time ever combine the detection of high-frequency dynamics of variability of flow and nutrient concentrations through time (Birgand) with a functional analysis of the drivers and controls of nutrient spiraling as well as metabolically active transient storage (Krause).

Being able to do both leverages the information generated by each technique, and is the natural reason for which Birgand and Krause have decided to work together. Krause is particularly interested in a micro-volume in situ analyzer that Birgand’s team has developed, which gives access to both spatial and temporal resolution water quality data. This gives Krause and his team access to crucial information on the fate of nutrients and pollutants in the very reactive near stream area.

Following meetings in Birmingham, Birgand and Krause have decided that the best way to start a collaboration is to bring respective expertise to each other’s’ field sites, where they will, with their respective students, teach and learn respective instruments/techniques.

Feasibility

Birgand’s team has monitored over the last four years a stream restoration, before, during, and currently after restoration, using in situ instruments to obtain ‘continuous’ (i.e., every 15 min) flow and concentrations, a feat that no one in the world has done or at least reported before. The restored stream is thus a new aquatic entity where nutrient turnover and dissipation processes rely on substrate which origin is controlled and generally known. This leverages the potential for stream metabolism experiments to generate more easily interpretable data that will nicely complement the bulk observations derived from continuous monitoring. This will be done using Krause’s techniques and expertise.

Birgand and Krause have already agreed that Brekenfeld would also come in Raleigh in 2018 to build under Birgand’s team guidance, a micro-multiplexed sampler for in situ water quality monitoring of porous media, particularly those around streams, which will leverage Krause’s approach to better trace in time and in space the transport and fate of nutrients and carbon in his study streams in the UK. Brekenfeld did come to Raleigh to build the instrument and Birgand joined Krause’s team to their field sites in the UK in June 2019 to help implement the in situ micro volume sensors and learn on additional tracer techniques, which Krause’s team has applied on their study sites.

Significance/Relevance

Birgand’s program has developed world-leading high-frequency field sampling technologies to capture the temporal variability of flow and concentrations combining newly commercially available in-situ high frequency (e.g., 15 min) spectrophotometers with smart statistical techniques. This has lowered uncertainty on the bulk trend at an unprecedented and remarkable level, but would tremendously benefit from complementary approaches.

While on sabbatical leave in the fall of 2017 at the University of Bristol, UK, Dr. Birgand had a chance to connect several times with Dr. Krause and his team at the University of Birmingham, UK. Dr. Krause’s lab pioneers the development of fluorescence based smart tracer systems that are used to analyze the microbial and metabolic processes occurring in streams and at the sediment-water interface that control nutrient spiraling and pollutant turnover. The application of Dr. Krause’s smart tracer technologies therefore provide a unique opportunity to be combined with Dr. Birgand’s sampling technologies and high-frequency detection of solute concentrations in order to for the first time ever combine the detection of high-frequency dynamics of variability of flow and nutrient concentrations through time (Birgand) with a functional analysis of the drivers and controls of nutrient spiraling as well as metabolically active transient storage (Krause).

Being able to do both leverages the information generated by each technique, and is the natural reason for which Birgand and Krause have decided to work together. Krause is particularly interested in a micro-volume in situ analyzer that Birgand’s team has developed, which gives access to both spatial and temporal resolution water quality data. This gives Krause and his team access to crucial information on the fate of nutrients and pollutants in the very reactive near stream area.

Following meetings in Birmingham, Birgand and Krause have decided that the best way to start a collaboration is to bring respective expertise to each other’s’ field sites, where they will, with their respective students, teach and learn respective instruments/techniques.

Feasibility

Birgand’s team has monitored over the last four years a stream restoration, before, during, and currently after restoration, using in situ instruments to obtain ‘continuous’ (i.e., every 15 min) flow and concentrations, a feat that no one in the world has done or at least reported before. The restored stream is thus a new aquatic entity where nutrient turnover and dissipation processes rely on substrate which origin is controlled and generally known. This leverages the potential for stream metabolism experiments to generate more easily interpretable data that will nicely complement the bulk observations derived from continuous monitoring. This will be done using Krause’s techniques and expertise.

Birgand and Krause have already agreed that Brekenfeld would also come in Raleigh in 2018 to build under Birgand’s team guidance, a micro-multiplexed sampler for in situ water quality monitoring of porous media, particularly those around streams, which will leverage Krause’s approach to better trace in time and in space the transport and fate of nutrients and carbon in his study streams in the UK. Brekenfeld did come to Raleigh to build the instrument and Birgand joined Krause’s team to their field sites in the UK in June 2019 to help implement the in situ micro volume sensors and learn on additional tracer techniques, which Krause’s team has applied on their study sites.

Significance/Relevance

Birgand’s program has developed world-leading high-frequency field sampling technologies to capture the temporal variability of flow and concentrations combining newly commercially available in-situ high frequency (e.g., 15 min) spectrophotometers with smart statistical techniques. This has lowered uncertainty on the bulk trend at an unprecedented and remarkable level, but would tremendously benefit from complementary approaches.

While on sabbatical leave in the fall of 2017 at the University of Bristol, UK, Dr. Birgand had a chance to connect several times with Dr. Krause and his team at the University of Birmingham, UK. Dr. Krause’s lab pioneers the development of fluorescence based smart tracer systems that are used to analyze the microbial and metabolic processes occurring in streams and at the sediment-water interface that control nutrient spiraling and pollutant turnover. The application of Dr. Krause’s smart tracer technologies therefore provide a unique opportunity to be combined with Dr. Birgand’s sampling technologies and high-frequency detection of solute concentrations in order to for the first time ever combine the detection of high-frequency dynamics of variability of flow and nutrient concentrations through time (Birgand) with a functional analysis of the drivers and controls of nutrient spiraling as well as metabolically active transient storage (Krause).

Being able to do both leverages the information generated by each technique, and is the natural reason for which Birgand and Krause have decided to work together. Krause is particularly interested in a micro-volume in situ analyzer that Birgand’s team has developed, which gives access to both spatial and temporal resolution water quality data. This gives Krause and his team access to crucial information on the fate of nutrients and pollutants in the very reactive near stream area.

Following meetings in Birmingham, Birgand and Krause have decided that the best way to start a collaboration is to bring respective expertise to each other’s’ field sites, where they will, with their respective students, teach and learn respective instruments/techniques.

Feasibility

Birgand’s team has monitored over the last four years a stream restoration, before, during, and currently after restoration, using in situ instruments to obtain ‘continuous’ (i.e., every 15 min) flow and concentrations, a feat that no one in the world has done or at least reported before. The restored stream is thus a new aquatic entity where nutrient turnover and dissipation processes rely on substrate which origin is controlled and generally known. This leverages the potential for stream metabolism experiments to generate more easily interpretable data that will nicely complement the bulk observations derived from continuous monitoring. This will be done using Krause’s techniques and expertise.

Birgand and Krause have already agreed that Brekenfeld would also come in Raleigh in 2018 to build under Birgand’s team guidance, a micro-multiplexed sampler for in situ water quality monitoring of porous media, particularly those around streams, which will leverage Krause’s approach to better trace in time and in space the transport and fate of nutrients and carbon in his study streams in the UK. Brekenfeld did come to Raleigh to build the instrument and Birgand joined Krause’s team to their field sites in the UK in June 2019 to help implement the in situ micro volume sensors and learn on additional tracer techniques, which Krause’s team has applied on their study sites.

Agricultural drainage is essential for crop production in Egypt. Over 78% of Egypt’s agricultural land is artificially drained. Drainage, however, has negative impacts on ground and surface water quality. Drainage mobilizes salts and agricultural chemicals, which may contaminate shallow groundwater aquifers and surface water bodies. Drainage systems must be carefully designed to increase yields, reduce production costs, and minimize nutrient losses from drained farmlands to ground and surface waters. Over-designed drainage systems not only increase installation costs, but more importantly waste the valuable water resource, may lead to yield losses because of the potential increase in dry stresses, and also increase the potential for leaching losses of applied agrochemicals, contaminating ground and surface waters. Despite the dramatic changes in farming practices and the availability of water resource, the design criteria for drainage systems in Egypt has not been updated during the last three decades. The goal of this project is to develop and evaluate new drainage design criteria that explicitly link the design of drainage systems to crop yields and profits, water quality, and water conservation. A regional study will be conducted to evaluate the performance of existing drainage systems. The new design criteria and framework will utilize the widely used DRAINMOD (drainage water management suite of models). The new design criteria will be evaluated using two field experiments. The results of this project could lead to significant improvement to the drainage design, reducing construction cost, improving yield, conserving water, and reducing pollution load. The excessive surface water pollution and the scarcity of the water resource, currently facing Egypt, make this research proposal timely and critically needed.

Working with Coventry University Faculty, I am developing a Study Abroad Class on Roman Engineering in Britain. The class is slated to be instructed in 2020.

Faculty liaison with Norway's technical university (NTNU) on graduate student exchange for research collaboration.

Meeting and discussion with aquatic plant managers in New Zealand for optimization of aquatic plant management operational programs and potential future collaborations

Together with the Global Training Institute, I am writing a 100K Strong grant proposal to facilitate student interchange between the United States and Mexico for agricultural sustainability projects.  Potential partners include La BUAP and La UDLAP in Puebla, México, as well as Tec de Monterrey in Querétaro, México.

Dr Fernandez (North Carolina State University, USA) has provided DNA from her primocane-fruiting raspberry mapping population and detailed phenotypic data. She will be a co-author on any manuscripts about the PF gene. The benefits to NZ are the development of new cultivars that will help to protect our fruit industries from the effects of climate 

An agreement already exists between PFR and North Carolina State University (NCSU) detailing an IP arrangement which will allow both parties to use the developed IP in non-commercial and commercial arrangements. Agreements detailing IP management with remaining parties will be put in place before the start of the research programme if they do not already exist. MTA 170536MA

Resulting publication from this collaboration:

Two Loci, RiAF3 and RiAF4, Contribute to the Annual-Fruiting Trait in Rubus. 2019. Published online 2019 Oct 25. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2019.01341

Research collaboration with the University of Helsinki in Finland in the field of Photobiology. Our research program with host a post-doc to work on the use of UV light to prevent transplant shock from water stress. 

Dengue virus infects 50-100 million people and causes ~200,000 cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever annually. In tropical urban areas worldwide, dengue virus is transmitted exclusively by mosquito species utilizing artificial containers as oviposition habitats. Although the most important vector, Aedes aegypti, was almost eradicated from the Americas in the 1960s, the species has become widely disseminated and increasingly associated with intense dengue transmission.  We have made significant progress towards developing a novel lethal trap targeting oviposition behavior in container-inhabiting mosquito species, with a focus on Ae. aegypti. The trap builds on the concept that oviposition is mediated by specific physical and chemical cues in the environment, and once the cues are identified, they can be used not only to improve population monitoring, but more importantly, to create a lure-and-kill control strategy for gravid mosquitoes. Every gravid female eliminated from a population is one less potential vector, and one or more human infections averted. Our work to date has focused on developing three major components needed for this lethal trap: a mosquito-attractive trap design, oviposition attractants and stimulants, and a non-repellent killing medium. We have shown proof of concept for a prototype attractant-baited lethal ovitrap (ALOT) first in large cage trials and then in a pilot-scale field trial conducted in 2006 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Specifically, in large cage trials with alternative oviposition sites available, we achieved 97% mortality of gravid Ae. aegypti over 24 hours. We showed that fermentation-derived attractants enhanced the ALOT, as determined by an increase in female mortality and number of eggs retained by gravid females. We identified essential trap color and shape components, and determined the duration of efficacy of trap components in field conditions. We also identified and continue to refine oviposition attractants, stimulants, and their delivery systems.  In the field trial, we deployed 800 ALOTs in a 16 block residential area of New Orleans and compared this to control areas over 14 weeks by monitoring with non-lethal ovitraps, diurnal CO2-baited traps and vacuum aspirators. We are confident that the outcome of this work will be an inexpensive, easy-to-use product which will substantially reduce mosquito populations when deployed alone, or in concert with other control methods targeting this species. It will be especially effective against the most dangerous population member, the previously bloodfed and potentially infective (older) female. Area-wide management of Ae. aegypti with the ALOT promises to be a sustainable strategy because it is based on mosquito biology and behavior. The ALOT will empower communities to make the living and working environments of their residents healthy and safe.

The goal of the proposed project is to demonstrate a reduction in new human infections (from Aedes Stegomyia-borne dengue virus transmission) by area-wide deployment of the ALOT, as a component of community-based dengue management programs. There are 5 objectives to achieve this goal: 1) Finalize structural and toxicant components of the ALOT and validate under field conditions; 2) Complete characterization of oviposition attractants and stimulants, develop delivery systems, and validate under field conditions; 3) Optimize the ALOT containing oviposition attractants and stimulants and validate activity under field conditions; 4) Demonstrate the ALOT efficacy (reduction in mosquito density and dengue incidence) in an experimental field trial; 5) Work with public health officials and vector control experts to establish standards and benchmarks for use of lethal ovitraps. We propose a large scale evaluation of this device in dengue endemic areas in Iqyuitos, Peru, where we will measure changes in mosquito populations and trends in new human dengue infections. We expect that area-wide deployment of the ALOT will result in a measurable decrease in abundance of physiologically old mosquitoes and in new human infections.

This is a collaborative project between Tulane University and North Carolina State University.

Working with Royal Scientific Society (RSS) of Jordan to develop Water Supply systems based on filtered stormwater runoff. The project focuses on areas where Syrian refugees are housed with Jordanian families.

Description: Student exchange program.  8 students from Colombia and one student from NCSU participated in this program in 2018.

The Indian Fellows arrived in DC to kickoff their 2 week training.  While in DC, the group met with USDA, CGIAR International Food Policy Research Institute, APHIS, EPA, and FDA to discuss biosafety.  The Fellows then traveled to Raleigh for the remaining of their training.   While in Raleigh they met with NC State Faculty who have a biotechnology and biosafety research focus.  The second week was greeted by Snowstorm Diego, which left considerable snowfall.  After digging out from the snow, the Fellows were able to complete their training by visiting the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, BASF, Golden LEAF Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center and meet with North Carolina Growers Associations.  The objective of the training was to expose the Fellows, who serve as regulators in India, to the U.S. approach of biotechnology regulation and biosafety and to help India develop its biotechnology regulatory framework to reduce barriers to trade in GE food and agricultural products.

Fellows from Colombia traveled to North Carolina and Washington, DC to discuss agricultural gene editing advancements and policies in the U.S. to help further shape and understand Colombian policies. Through a variety of meetings with federal regulators, NC State University scientists and researchers, and private companies, the Fellows gained insight into the impact agricultural gene editing has on the agricultural industry as a whole.

Cochran Fellows from Algeria traveled to the US to explore animal feed formulation for the poultry industry. This training brought them to North Carolina and then Missouri to meet with NC State faculty and researchers, governmental entities, trade organizations, and public and private companies and farms. Through these meetings, the Fellows learned about formulation techniques, limitations and uses of common ingredients, new technological trends, quality control, and overall best practices so they can adapt their practices to meet poultry nutritional needs in Algeria.

 Invited to the 16th International Fermented Food Expo (IFFE)” in 2018, held from October 26th (Fri), 2018 at Jeonbuk institute for Food-Bioindustry in Jeonju, South Korea. Presented a special lecture for the area relevant to “the world of fermented foods.” The IFFE in conjunction with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in Korea (MFDS) covered expenses. Met with officials of the MFDS and establisted an internatinal reaserach project for the coming year to do basic research on the safety of Kimchi and related fermented vegetables. 

The tour focused on the region of Tuscany, which provides the opportunity to dive into different industries (crop, livestock, food and agri-tourism) blended with unique cultural and humanistic attractions.

The tour was dense with farm visits.
It spanned from hi-tech greenhouses to minimum-input silvo-pastoral livestock farms, to aquaculture, to pasta-making with heirloom wheat varieties. All this has been pulled together keeping best agricultural practices in mind and in order to give the participants a line-up that could not be found from other sources. 


Specifically, visits included:

- three dairy farms (cattle, sheep, bufalo) that sell a variety of products,
- two cereal farms, that market pasta and rice though direct sale and on-farm restaurant,
- a silvo-pastoral beef cattle & hog farms, with butcher and charcuterie shop,
- two Chianina beef cattle farms, with on-farm restaurant,
- a high-tech 30-acres greenhouse, that produces tomato, strawberry and micro-greens,
- a cooperative aquaculture facility, with a restaurant that serves the raised fish,
- a micro-brewery, that grows its own barley,
- a winemakers association tasting and marketing room.
 

Regulatory officials from Thailand visited Washington DC and North Carolina to learn about the U.S. regulatory system for agricultural products and commodities. The training provided the fellows with insight as to how the U.S. formulates its policies and regulations. The fellows met with federal and state governmental entities, non-profits, NC State faculty, and private corporations to discuss how to approach the formulation of new policies regulations in Thailand.

Borlaug Fellowship program to host international fellow from Morocco to work with Dr. Hamid Ashrafi in his blueberry genetics and genomics lab.  The overall objectives of  the fellowship work was to aid in the development small fruit berry crops in Loukkos, Morocco.  While at NC State University, the fellow was able to investigate micropropagation techniques for blueberries and other small fruit berry crops, conduct field blueberry breeding research, assess small fruit berry varieties, and conduct quality tests.   

CGIAR Borlaug Fellow working with Dr. Jean Ristaino as the NC State faculty mentor.  Fellow conducted research on Phytophera infestans population structure and pathogen evolution in eastern Africa. Fellow has has mapped the pathogen population in five eastern Africa countries as a basis for P. infestans surveillance in the region.  Additionally, she has generated pathogen data for the potato national breeding programs interested in a particular European potato variety as well as CIP’s potato biotechnology breeding group, that can be used for future deployment of the 3R transgenic potato for Africa.

We developed a joint project between an American higher education institute and USDA-FAS (Foreign Agricultural Service) to enhance researcher capacities to develop, promote, and defend the safe use of biotechnology in the promotion of global food security. In collaboration with Jose Cisneros we submitted a proposal to Borlauge institute and through USDA-FAS we were awarded $39,500 to host in a visitor scientist from Moroco to work on blueberry genemoics.

She was supposed to be in here in the U.S. in Oct 2017 but due to visa delay she is going to travel in the first quarter of 2018.   

Doctoral student training in human nutrition with a focus on hypertension treatment centers in Malawi.

Genetic Data Analysis for Plant and Animal Breeding

September 23-27, 2019, Montepulciano, Tuscany, Italy

Organized by:
North Carolina State University, USA

Organizing committee:
Dr. Francesco Tiezzi (NC State University), Email: f_tiezzi@ncsu.edu
Dr. Riccardo Bozzi, (University of Florence), Email: riccardo.bozzi@unifi.it

Instructors:
Christian Maltecca (NC State University, Animal breeding), Francesco Tiezzi (NC State University, Animal breeding), Fikret Isik (NC State University, Forest Tree Breeding), Guest lecturer (NC State University, Crop Breeding).

Registration:
Workshop registration cost is $1150 USD. Registration includes lunches, two coffee breaks per day, a welcome and a farewell dinner. It does not include lodging and travel expenses.

About the Workshop:
The workshop will be taught at an intermediate to advanced level. Participants are expected to have some understanding of the theory of mixed models.
This is a hands-on workshop. Participants are expected to work on exercises related to crops, animal and forest trees. You may bring your own laptop and your own data to work on after lectures.
Workshop format: Four sets of lecture + exercise per day. Each set will be a about 30-minute lecture and 60- minute exercise. See example below.

Software:
The exercises will demonstrate use of ASReml, R packages, and additional tools for data analysis. Some familiarity with R syntax will be expected. A temporary free license for ASReml will available at the time of workshop.

Workshop outline:
The workshop will mostly follow the textbook Isik-Holland-Maltecca (2017) Genetic data Analysis for Plant and Animal Breeding with hands-on examples.
The tentative outline is as follows:
Theory of linear mixed models ASReml software basics and options Breeding values and genetic values
Multi environmental trials using factor analytic models Spatial analysis of field test data
Explanatory marker data analysis
Imputing missing genotypes
Realized genomic relationships matrix and GBLUP Marker-trait associations
Genome-wide selection

Served as guest thesis evaluator at Nanjing Agricultural University. Advised 6 students while visiting the university. 

Partnered with the Global Training Initiative to teach visiting Argentinian scholars on three separate occasions about the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and about HPLC.

Forestry management systems affect soil properties, but few it is known about the response in bioindicators related to these changes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of bioindicators to sense the litter and soil (0-5 cm and 5-10 cm) state of two different Cedrela odorata forestry management systems; a monoculture (with no fertilization nor irrigation) and a coculture (with fertilization and irrigation) with Citrus latifolia. The soil bioindicators measured were those associated with total microbial activity: the enzyme activity of acetylesterase (FDA), acid phosphatase (AcPh), alkaline phosphatase (AlkPh), laccase, and the estimation of the potential net rate of carbon mineralization (PNRCM). Our results indicate that soil enzyme activities (FDA and phosphatases) were sensitive to different management systems in the litter; both activities increase with organic matter. Enzymatic activity was higher in litter of coculture (FDA = 0.063 ± 0.007 U.g-1DW; AcPh = 0.8 ± 0. 08 U.g-1DW; AlkPh = 0.18 ± 0. 003 U.g-1DW) than in litter of monoculture (FDA = 0.037 ± 0. 006 U.g-1DW; AcPh = 0.24 ± 0. 03 U.g-1DW; AlkPh = 0. 059 ± 0. 005 U.g-1DW). There were no significant differences in soil enzyme activity between forestry management, however, differences in total nitrogen amount, organic matter content, and micronutrients were found. This indicates that changes in microbial activity, due to the management system, are occurring mainly in the litter than in the soil. We conclude that the use of these bioindicators (with exception of laccase) is suitable for litter and soil diagnosis in forestall plantations in the tropic

Turkish Fellows participated in the Cochran training program to investigate agricultural biotechnology and how it fits in to the bigger picture of innovation that enables farmers to meet 21st century challenges of climate change, environmental degradation, water shortages, and growing food demand. Through a variety of meetings with federal and state regulators, NC State University scientists and researchers, private companies and farmers, the Fellows were exposed to agricultural biotechnology policies and practices in the US.

Description

In addition to HPLC training, the visit also involved:

• Two Presentations
• Meetings with Food Science Faculty
• Setting Up Research Agreements

Cochran Fellows from Myanmar traveled to the US to conduct their training on animal nutrition. This training brought them to North Carolina, Virginia and Missouri. Throughout the program, the Fellows learned about the raw ingredients that go into animal feed, procurement techniques, regulatory issues, animal feed processing, quality control, storing and handling, and meeting animal nutrition needs. Through a variety of visits with regulatory bodies, farmers, feed mills, and processing plants, the Fellows were able to develop new connections in the US.

Despite their ubiquity and high visibility, rust colored iron oxide deposits remain a poorly understood feature of rivers, lakes, and springs. Until recently, it was assumed that these deposits were formed by abiotic chemical processes; however, recent studies have shown that these deposits often result from the action of specific iron oxidizing bacteria. These bacterial iron oxides may have very different properties than those abiotic oxides that are traditionally used by geochemists in laboratory experiments designed to probe environmental and geochemical reactivity. The overall goal of the project is to characterize the structure, reactivity, and biological diversity of these iron oxide deposits to better understand the multifaceted roles they may play in the environment. To achieve these goals, we will conduct a suite of field, laboratory, microbiological, and spectroscopic analyses aimed at determining key properties of both the iron oxides and the bacteria associated with their formation.

While in the U.S. for two weeks, the Fellows first met in the Washington DC for meetings with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to learn about the U.S. school meals program before before departing to NC State, where meetings will continue with faculty members, NC governmental agencies, and local schools.

Management of undergraduate research experience in Villaviciosa, Spain and Valencia, Spain where students were immersed in the local culture while working with international researchers at the Dairy Istitute of Asturias (Instituto de Productos Lacteos de Asturias) and Universitat Politècnica de València, respectively. 

Hosted a visiting Peruvian professor from la UNSA (University of Saint Augustin) in order to:

• Discuss possible collaborations
• Familiarize him with NC State's facilities in Raleigh and at Kannapolis
• Plan an HPLC training workshop in Perú.

The demand for organic food products has increased dramatically over the past years. In both Denmark and USA the organic sector is growing, but production is lower than demand. In spite of more than twenty years of research on organic crop production, crop yields are in practice still way below potential. There are 4 significant reasons for this: 1) the availability of nutrients already present does not match plant needs due to lack of focus on importance of individual nutrients 2) the availability of nutrients already present does not match plant needs due to poor synchronization in time 3) lack of sufficient nutrien sources 4) existing knowledge is not sufficiently implemented in practice Nutrient balances and soil fertility issues both need more attention in organic systems. Balancing N and P inputs is challenging when manure inputs are a main source of P. Organic farmers are encouraged to augment their production of N via legumes in various portions of the crop rotation, thus allowing lower animal manure application rates to reduce chances of loading soils with too much P. A different approach, however, might be more appropriate where P is more limiting. There are also basic issues of whether the standard soil tests developed for fertilizer-based nutrient applications are adequate for evaluating soil nutrient availability in organic systems that have larger organic matter pools. Denmark and USA share the need to improve resource efficiency in organic crop production and will join forces to focus on optimizing nutrient supply and efficient implementation practices. 

This is a 3-yr project (April 2016 to Dec. 2018) in the Amazonas region of Peru, South America. The overall goals of the project are to: 1) describe the silvopastoral systems utilized by producers in terms of production and socio-economical characteristics, 2) develop a decision-tool for evaluation of activities in the silvopastoral systems, and 3) provide a system for evaluation and financial support. The three institutional partners from Peru are: Universidad Agraria La Molina, Universidad Nacional Toribio Rodriguez de Mendoza, and Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agraria (INIA). 

Innovación en la Evaluación de Sistemas Silvopastoriles de Selva Alta Peruana como Estrategia de Adaptación y Mitigación al Cambio Climático

Enfoque: Entendimiento y desarrollo de sistemas y modelos silvopastoriles de Selva Alta Peruana.

Institucion que financia el proyecto: Programa Nacional de Innovación Agraria PNIA

Nombre de instituciones involucradas: Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Universidad Nacional Toribio Rodríguez de Mendoza, North Carolina State University, Insituto Nacional de Innovación Agraria.

The overall objective of the envisaged long term collaborative program between NCSU and UP will be to develop a better understanding of the overall bacterial diversity in watersheds and impoundments of South Africa, and to determine what impact it may have on the health of water users. As this is a broad research goal that will require the input of various research disciplines, it was decided that the initial proposal would focus on characterization of the bacterial diversity on aquatic plants, with special emphasis on E. coli, and determination of the impact they may have on human health. Specifically, we will isolate E. coli and other bacteria associated with aquatic plants in the watersheds of South Africa and identify these isolates based on partial rpoS and uidA sequencing (Aim 1, UP). These strains will be made available to the Plants for Human Health Institute, where we will further investigate these cultures for their growth kinetics, mobility, biofilm formation, and adhesion parameters critical to human health. The bioactive metabolites produced by the isolates will be further investigated in the pairwise phenotypical screening platform using mammalian cell culture to understand their pharmacological and/or pathological effects on human health in the area of metabolic disease and inflammation (Aim 2, NCSU). An interdisciplinary partnership “Center for Sustainable Health and Biodiversity (CSHB)” will be created to coordinate the future research efforts and funding applications (Aim 3, shared).

• International SEXSEED Consortium (http://www.fc.up.pt/sexseed/) - Consortium of eight labs focused on the molecular mechanisms of seed development.  In addition to my lab the other participant labs are Silvia Coimbra (Universidade Do Porto, Portugal), Lucia Colombo (University of Milano, Italy), Charles Spillane (National University of Ireland), Emilio Albertini (Universita Degli Studi Di Perugia, Italy), Matthew Tucker (University of Adelaide, Australia), Brian Jones (University of Sydney, Australia), Ravishanker Palanivelu (University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona)

Fellows from Ecuador and Peru spent 2 weeks in North Carolina to learn about resilient agriculture and best practices to minimize risks of climate swings.  The objective of this program was to increase knowledge of climate smart agriculture practices. During this program the Fellows will receive training on soil management, crop modeling and disseminating information. Effective extension practices will also be covered in this training program.  Through a combination of lectures, workshops with professors and researchers from the NC State University and researchers from the USDA-ARS and the USDA Southeast Regional Climate Hub (SERCH), the fellows increased their knowledge on climate smart agriculture practices.

This is a project involving SFI MaREI (Cork Ireland), EPIC (Belfast, Ireland, and NSF FREEDM Systems Center (NCSU, Raleigh) exploring issues relating to the increased decentralization of the electricity sector and the increased electrification of the energy sector more broadly. The project explores engineering implications of these issues as well as socio-economic considerations.

COURSE INFORMATION

Credits: 3

Pre-requisites: none

COURSE STRUCTURE & LOCATION

The 2 week course begins with students meeting in Thankerton Game Reserve near Gravelotte, South Africa.  Students will be expected to attend demonstrations and participate in field activities at the privately owned game reserves that Dr. Chris Boshoff (veterinarian) will be working at.   The day to day location varies within the Limpopo Province of South Africa depending on clinical cases.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The course is an overview of the field strategies and veterinary techniques that wildlife veterinarians and biologists use in management and conservation of the wildlife.  The course will give students a better understanding about how wildlife veterinarian assists game farmers in breeding and conservation of endangered wild animals.   The course will be taught with the logistical support and assistance from SA World Vets  (http://www.saworldvets.com/Conservation/SA_WorldVets_Wildlife_Vets_South_Africa.html)

Drs. Heike Sederoff and Marcela Rojas-Pierce led a workshop on Bioinformatics and Plant Molecular Biology at the National University of San Agustin (UNSA), in Arequipa, Peru. The workshop was divided into seminars in the morning, with topics ranging from modern molecular plant biology, an introduction bioinformatic tools and research talks from all five group members. In the afternoon, students and faculty members of UNSA gained hands-on experience doing DNA and RNA extraction, amplification and PCR as well as microscopy in the lab sessions led by two graduate students, Nathan Wilson and Eli Hornstein, and a Research Assistant, Cristina Salinas, from the Sederoff lab. 

As part of the Royal Academy of Engineers (UK) fellowship, I am obliged to help Coventry University develop rainwater harvesting guidance for the Cape Verde Islands.

Collaborative relationship with the Japan Plant Factory Association. Co-organized and hosted a conference “Ag Tech Collides” (https://cals.ncsu.edu/event/ag-tech-worlds-collide/) February 2018, Raleigh, NC. In this conference four Japanese companies and three invited speakers presented innovations in plant factory to companies, government agencies and entrepreneurs in the USA. (total attendees: 70). After conference the Japan Plant Factory Association and my program continue to collaborate in research and academic programs

Material transfer research agreement 

Share hops materials and research resuts to develop methods for using hops in acidified vegetable products without significant flavor impact

Dr. Changho Chung

                                    Dept. of Culinary Science and Food Service Management

Sejong University,

98 Gunja-dong, Gwangjin-gu

Seoul, 143-747, South Korea

                                    Tel: +822 3408-3222

                                    Fax: +822-3408-4313

                                    Email: cchung@senong.ac.kr

ISU:                Dr. Byron Brehm-Stecher

                                    Dept. of Food Science and Human Nutrition

                                    2312 Food Sciences Building

                                    Iowa State University

                                    Ames, IA50011-1061

                                    Tel: 515-294-6469

                                    Fax: 515-294-8181

                                    Email: Byron@Iastate.edu

This research is part of an interdisciplinary regional archaeology project working to understand the techniques utilized by the ancient Maya to manage urban water systems at El Perú-Waka' in northern Guatemala. 

Description

Hosting a Postdoctoral research Associate (2017-2018) Titta Kotilainen Ph.D.

Project title and description: Optimizing site-specific solar radiation modeling for its application in the horticultural, agricultural, and photonics industries- This project, funded by Academy of Finland is a joint effort between University of Helsinki, Department of Bioscienes, Division of Plant Biology; NC State University, Department of Horticultural Science (R. Hernández); Stockbridge Technology Centre (UK); Kauppapuutarhaliitto (association for Finnish growers); and Photonics Finland. Partial funding provided by the Science Academy of Finland.

The Eduador and Perú Fellows spent 2 weeks in and around Raleigh, North Carolina to receive training on pasture management in order to increase the health and production of the animals in their respective home countries.  Through this Cochran Fellowship, the Fellows met with scientific experts within the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the USDA Farm Service Agency.  Additionally, they met with NC State University faculty involved in pasture management, grass breeding, livestock nutrition, silvopastures, and forages and pastures research.  To round out the training, the Fellows also visited local farms as well as NC State University experimental research facilities.  The objective of the training was to expose the Fellows to best management practices to help maximize the health of their animals while conserving pastures for the future.

The Department of Food, Bioprocessing, and Nutrition Sciences, and the CALS Office of International Programs co-funded a trip to three universities in Peru in order to generate research and teaching collaborations. Dr. Jose Cisneros organized the trip and invited Dr. Harris, along with four other CALS faculty and administrators to participate.

Global Academy conducted a training program on Improved Adaption to Drought and Dry Cereal for four fellows from Mali and one fellow Burkina Faso spanning from November 4-17, 2017.  While at NC State, the fellows attended lectures and roundtable sessions with faculty from Department of Agricultural and Human Sciences, Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, Department of Applied Ecology, and Prestage Department of Poultry Science. They also visited a number of NC State research facilities such as National Science Foundation Center for Integrated Pest Management at NC State, North Carolina Plant Disease and Insect Clinic at NC State, Center for Environmental Farming Systems, and Central Crops Research Station. To gain understanding of how the government is supporting environmentally friendly programs, the fellows also met with North Carolina officials from USDA Farm Service Agency, USDA Rural Development Agency, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, North Carolina Farm Bureau, USDA-ARS Climate Change/Air Quality Laboratory, and USDA-ARS Soybean and Nitrogen Fixation Research Unit. As most of these fellows worked in the cotton industry in Mali and Burkina Faso, they were interested in visiting similar industry facilities in NC. With that aim, they toured private businesses such as Rock Ridge Farms, Silver Lake Cotton Grower’s Gin, Cotton, Inc, and Pace Family Farms.

The Pakistan Fellows spent 2 weeks on a USDA Cochran fellowship in the US traveling from North Carolina to Virginia, Missouri and Illinois.  The goal of the training was to improve the awareness about the products available, processing and marketing infrastructure and capacity building of the solvent industry, feed mill managers and professionals.  The Fellows toured Purdue Farms', Smithfield Grain's and Cargill's port terminals, and met with numerous trade organizations like the American Soybean Association and the U.S. Soybean Export Council as well as other governmental agencies as means to increase connectivity between the trade professionals of the U.S. and Pakistan.  During this training, the Fellows also experienced snowfall in Missouri, which was an experience in itself!

In a recent trip, I visited Nanjing and Beijing.  In Nanjing, I met Dr. Jianxiu Liu and colleagues working on turfgrass breeding and genetic transformation in the Jiangsu Institute of Botany, CAS.  I was also able to give a long-due seminar there.  In Beijing, I met Dr. Wanjun Zhang, Associate Professor at CAU, working on turfgrass and switchgrass transformation. Dr. Zhang was a postdoc in my lab at NCSU before taking the position. We discussed the progress of his research projects.

The project is in collaboration with Dr. Bingwu Wang of Yunnan Academy of Tobacco Agricultural Sciences (YATAS), China, in an attempt to understand various factors (transcription factors, pathway enzymes, agronomy measurements, photohormones...) that affect nicotine synthesis in tobacco plants.  We received a patent for the work: US patent 9580722, and wrapped up the project in late 2018.

Global Academy conducted a two week training on resilient agriculture for a group of six fellows from Bosnia from October 14 – 27, 2017. Their backgrounds included public and private sectors as well as university, which resulted in interesting and lively dialogues during the training sessions. The training consisted of roundtable sessions, workshops, demonstration sessions and field visits covering wide variety of topics pertaining to resilient agriculture.

Four agricultural professionals from Mali and one from Burkina Faso came to the U.S. from November 4 – 17, 2017 and participated in the USDA-FAS Cochran Fellowship Program on Improved Adaption to Drought and Dry Cereal at NC State in Raleigh, NC.  This training program was planned by CALS Global Academy and was carried out with with professionals from the USDA, university, state, and the private sector.  The Fellows were interested in the cotton industry and they were able to visit Cotton Inc., Silver Lake Cotton Grower’s Gin in Elm City, and Rock Ridge Farms in Wilson during harvest season.  

The 2-week training program provided the Ghanian Fellows an opportunity to investigate what a country with GMO's would look like.  Through this, the Fellows met with a wide-assortment of faculty and professionals including NC State's Office of Technology Commercialization and New Ventures, numerous research faculty, Golden LEAF Biomanufacturing Training and Education Center, RTP biotech companies, and farmers.  After this program, the Fellows will have the tools to have educated discussions about GMOs in Ghana.
The delegation also braved Hurricane Matthew as it came through North Carolina on their final days.

Dr. Hunt travelled to Spain to help develop a new study abroad class on Roman engineering.

Working in conjunction with the Global Training Initiative, met with Argentinian faculty to discuss collaborations and to give them a tour of the NC State food processing facilities.  (Schaub Hall fruit and vegetable pilot plant and milk/ice cream production plant.)

Klima 2050 - Risk reduction through climate adaptation of buildings and infrastructure - is a Centre for Research-based Innovation (SFI). The aim of Klima 2050 is to reduce the societal risks associated with climate changes and enhanced precipitation and flood water exposure within the built environment.

During this research, I worked with Klima 2050 and Tone Muthanna, an associate professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), to analyze long-term hydrologic performance of stormwater control measures in Norway to assess climate adaptability and longevity.

Funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to develop genomic tools for sweet potato breeding, we formed a research partnership with Prof. A. Augusto F. Garcia's group at Department of Genetics, “Luiz de Queiroz” College of Agriculture, University of São Paulo, Brazil to develop statistical methods and computer programs for linkage and QTL analysis in polyploid populations.

This program provided the fellows exposure on how crop germplasm is identified, inspected, and conserved and how this information is shared throughout the country.  The Fellows traveled throughout the country to talk with numerous professionals and scientists.  In Washington, DC, the Fellows met with the National Plant Germplasm Laboratory, the American Seed Trade Association and toured the USDA National Arboretum.  In Raleigh, NC, the Fellows met with NC State University Plant Breeding Consortium faculty , toured the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Seed Laboratory, NC State University Micropropagation and Repository Unit, and Syngenta Seeds.  Then the Fellows traveled to Colorado where they met with the USDA-ARS Plant and Animal Genetic Resources Preservation, Seed Preservation Program.  On the final leg of their trip, the Fellows toured the M. Rick Tomato Genetics Resource Center and then the Tree Fruit, Nut, and Grapes National Clonal Germplasm Repository in Davis, California.  This cross-country training introduced the Fellows to a wide array of US agriculture and the multiple approaches to germplasm conservation within the US.

GOALS:
The goal of this Agricultural and Gastronomic Discovery Tour of Italy is for participants to learn about time-honored traditions of farming, food production and marketing while gaining a greater appreciation for the local food systems in Italy.

WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE?
The tour is proposed to farmers, entrepreneurs, chefs and anybody that has in interested in local, traditional food system or industry (but all are welcome). This discovery tour of Italy will promise a very full itinerary with plenty of exercise. The tour is to be meant as an “traveling workshop”. We will provide technical descriptions of the businesses prior to our visits, while the operational details of the farms will be explained during the visits. Particular focus will be on the marketing strategies that the farms use, from wholesale or direct sales of products to running restaurants on the farm – all marketing aspects will be explored.

THIRTEEN FARM/SPECIALTY FOOD VISITS:
»DAIRY FARMS: We will visit six farms (including cattle, sheep and buffalo) that engage in dairy processing; from bottling milk, to making other dairy products or processing it into cheese.
»CHEESE MAKERS: We will visit three small to medium-sized cheesemakers, that process milk from a multitude of species into traditional and niche cheeses.
»BEEF (CATTLE) FARMS: with special emphasis on those raising heritage breeds, like Chianina (accredited as the largest cattle breed in the world) and Maremmana, which is especially suited for outdoor raising in harsh conditions.
»PIG FARM: We will visit a pasture- based hog farm that raises the heritage breed ‘Cinta Senese’, which is well known for its charcuterie quality.
»DISTILLERY: The tour also includes a visit to a distillery that makes grappa, a brandy distilled from the fermented residue of grapes after they have been pressed in winemaking.
»FRESH PASTA: We will visit a shop that makes fresh pasta daily using recipes handed down for generations.

MEALS:
Meals will highlight time-honored Italian traditions, using only the freshest ingredients, at farms and restaurants that value the “farm to fork” approach. Great care has been taken to search out family-owned, family-run restaurants, that put emphasis on traditional dishes with a focus on meat and seafood dishes. All communal meals will be fixed menu and served family style.

LODGING:
Participants will have the opportunity to explore a wide variety of traditional lodging styles. From on-farm stays at some of the farms we visit to bed and breakfasts to hotels – all value traditional Italian hospitality and are quite comfortable.

EXTRAS:
Throughout this discovery of Italy, great care has been taken to build in time to visit some true historical gems. From an Etruscan necropolis to the resort town of Amalfi to the lush wine region of Montepulciano to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Pienza. A trip to Italy would not be complete without taking in some of the ancient historical sites the Tuscan region has to offer.

Six agricultural professionals from Turkey came to the U.S. from September 3 – 14, 2018 and participated in the USDA-FAS Cochran Fellowship Program on Biotechnology Policy and Communication at NC State in Raleigh, NC. This training program was planned by CALS Global Academy and was carried out with with professionals from the USDA, university, state, and the private sector. The goal of this program was to help Turkey develop a science-based and transparent approach to the genetically engineered products and improve the Turkey Biosafety Law. During this program, the Fellows learned about U.S. and global policies for biotech regulation; biotech production, supply, and demand; biotech research and development; risk communication in agricultural biotechnology; animal feeding and feed production. We did have to cut the 2-week session short due to Hurricane Florence, but we hope the experience was well-received and some long-lasted relationships were developed.

Seven agricultural professionals from Bosnia and Herzegovina came to the U.S. from October 14 – 28, 2017 and participated in the USDA-FAS Cochran Fellowship Program on Resilient Agriculture at NC State in Raleigh.  This training program was planned by CALS Global Academy and was carried out with the cooperation of many different partners at NC State and within the state.  Some of the highlights of this training program were visits to: the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center, Flavor 1^st Growers and Packing, Johnson’s Peaches, Lewis Creek Farms, USDA Rural Development Agency, CEFS, the Sandhills Research Station, and the USDA-ARS Climate Change/Air Quality Laboratory.  

Description

This project will develop modern genomic, genetic, and bioinformatics tools to facilitate crop improvement and improve genetic gains in sweetpotato, an important food security and cash crop with highly recognized potential to alleviate hunger, vitamin A deficiency, and poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and predominantly grown in small plot holdings by poor women farmers. https://sweetpotatogenomics.cals.ncsu.edu/

Four agricultural professionals came to North Carolina from September 12 – 25, 2017 and participated in the USDA-FAS Cochran Fellowship Program on Feed Formulation for Poultry Industry at NC State in Raleigh.  This training program was planned by CALS Global Academy and was carried out with the cooperation of many different partners at NC State and within the state.  Some of the highlights of this training program were visits to: Premex, Coker Feed Mill, Case Farms Calypso Feed Mill, and the NCSU Feed Mill.  The Fellows learned about importing U.S. grains from the NCDA&CS International Trade Office and from the North Carolina Small Grain Growers Association.  The Fellows spent many hours with Edgar Oviedo, Peter Ferket, and Adam Fahrenholz learning about best feed formulation practices.  

Eight agricultural professionals came to the U.S. from September 30 – October 13, 2017 and participated in the USDA-FAS Cochran Fellowship Program on Food Supplement Programs at NC State. The Fellows started their Cochran Fellowship in Washington, D.C. and then flew to NC for the remainder of their program.  Some of the highlights of this training program were visits to: the USDA, Aberdeen Elementary, and the NCDA&CS Food Distribution Division.  The attended multiple workshops on SNAP and EBT programs.  

Dr. Kolar visited Central University of Haryana (CUH), Mahendergarh, India to deliver a 2-week course on Principles of Environmental Catalysis. He had a great time while there. The course was organized through the government of India's initiative called global initiative of academic network (GIAN).  Dr. Kolar also initiated a couple of research projects (submitting a letter of intent and pending decision).

Undergraduate research experience in Lima, Peru with the International Potato Center (CIP) where the student was immersed in the local culture and worked with international researchers throughout Peru.  The student conducted field and laboratory research on potato nutrients. 

Management of undergraduate research experience in Villaviciosa, Spain where students were immersed in the local culture while working with international researchers at the Dairy Istitute of Asturias (Instituto de Productos Lacteos de Asturias).  The students conducted laboratory research to isolate microbial DNA from whey samples and identify bacterial strains. 

Description