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David Bullock and a team of researchers recently secured a $4,000,000 grant from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to help American farmers implement on-farm conservation practices. The grant will be put toward David’s project, “Improving the Economic and Ecological Sustainability of U.S. Crop Production through On-Farm Precision Experimentation," which is currently seeking applications from eligible farm owners.

In the coming months, researchers will deploy data-intensive technologies to monitor the effects on yield of reducing nitrogen loss for cotton, corn, wheat and soybean crops. The experiments will be site-specific and will allow farmers to precisely limit their inputs based on the data they have collected, with the end goal of increasing efficiency and profits for their farms. David and his team believe that their experiments are truly revolutionary and will provide results that have the potential to improve the lives of farmers across the country.

The USDA’s National Food Institute of Agriculture recently awarded a $5.2 million grant to a research team from Michigan State University led by George Sundin and Nikki Rothwell who will be working in conjunction with CEOS’ Shadi Attalah. The team will be conducting comprehensive research into control methods for fire blight, a deadly bacterial disease affecting U.S. apples and pears. Shadi will be working with a graduate student to develop a bio-economic model for fire blight management in apples, with a focus on novel, non-antibiotic strategies. The work will be in collaboration with College of ACES Crop Scientist Youfu Zhao and other plant pathologists from 8+ other institutions. Congratulations Shadi!

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The National Clean Plant Network (NCPN) is in charge of providing U.S. growers with an important source of safe and sustainable plant material. CEOS's Shadi Attalah and a team of researchers undertook an economic study on the importance of the NCPN’s use of pathogen-tested foundation plant stocks in safeguarding specialty crop varieties in the United States. Shadi and other agricultural economists partnered with plant pathologists, extension educators, specialty crop growers and regulators for the study to investigate the impacts of certain diseases caused by the graft-transferrable pathogens and to estimate the return on investment of the NCPN’s work in helping to mitigate those diseases. Their findings reinforce incentives for the NCPN to continue to use clean planting material, quantify the benefits of NCPN centers, aid the development of disease management solutions that are not only ecologically sound, but profit driven, and perhaps most importantly, produce solutions that are marketable to growers.

The Paul A. Funk Awards are usually celebrated at a banquet every April. The pandemic shut down the banquet this year, so we want to recognize CEOS collaborators who would have been honored.

Bryan Parthum received the Louis V. Logeman Graduate Student Teaching Award, which honors graduate students that excel as teachers in the classroom. Over a period of four semesters, Bryan has proven himself an exceptionally talented and versatile instructor both in the traditional classroom and online. Whether building a new course for the department, interacting with undergraduate students inside and outside the classroom, or innovating an online course that resonates with freshmen and sophomores, the proof of Bryan’s commitment and effectiveness can be summed up in his evaluations from both students and faculty.

Population pressure is high and soils are degraded in many areas of Malawi. Along with co-authors Annemie Maertens and Vesall Nourani, CEOS's Hope Michelson evaluated an agricultural extension program working to promote technologies of integrated soil fertility management to build and preserve soil health in Malawi. The authors conclude that farmers that engage in hands-on, local farming experiences, including season-long, farmer-led demonstration crop cultivation, plan to adopt more components of new technologies. Specifically, they found: