The connecticut agricultural experiment station receives hatch act capacity funding to address the challenges and priority areas ID entified by connecticut residents

The Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station $1,651,926 under the Hatch Act Capacity Program (CFDA 10.203) on October 1, 2025, to conduct agricultural research addressing Connecticut's priority challenges across three focus areas.

The recipient will conduct risk-informed land management research, including evaluating soil management and land-use decisions on soil health and ecosystem services (HATCH project accession 7009109); investigating pollinator species response to native plants during habitat restoration (7004673); and establishing soil microcosms to characterize microbial response to drought and soil moisture changes while tracking associated impacts on soil carbon fluxes and microbial taxa using quantitative PCR primers (7006994). The station will also enhance public health and well-being through research on disease vector ecology, physiology, genetics, and geographic and temporal distributions of historical, extant, and emerging disease vectors and their pathogens (7009576), developing surveillance and monitoring capabilities for mosquitoes and ticks alongside interventions to manage vector-borne pathogen transmission and pesticide resistance. Additionally, the recipient will strengthen agriculture and food security by determining how rising temperatures affect root-knot nematode disease severity and spread (7005298).

Performance occurs in New Haven, Connecticut, with a period of performance from October 1, 2025, through September 30, 2027. The award is classified as a Formula Grant and obligates $1,651,926 in federal capacity funding to the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, a state government research entity.

The priority research areas are: (1) risk-informed land management: for example, hatch project accession no. 7009109 is seeking to understand and develop resilient soil-scapes and is evaluating the impact of soil management and land use decisions on soil health, productivity, and other ecosystem services. Hatch project accession no. 7004673 investigating the response of pollinator species to native plants as part of habitat restoration efforts and in response to isolated agricultural plantings. Hatch project accession no. 7006994 is establishing soil microcosms to conduct controlled wetting experiments so as to characterize the microbial response to drought and soil wet-up and the associated impacts on soil carbon fluxes. In addition, quantitative PCR primers are being designed to track the taxa and functional genes that exhibit significant responsiveness to soil moisture. (2) enhancing health and well-being: here, hatch project accession no. 7009576 is investigating the ecology, physiology, genetics and/or geographic and temporal distributions of historical, extant, and emerging disease vectors and the pathogens they transmit. Under changing environmental conditions, these studies will enhance our ability to predict conditions leading to the spread or emergence of existing and novel diseases of public health importance. In addition to developing surveillance and monitoring of DI sease vectors (mosquitoes, ticks, etc.) and their associated pathogens, this project is developing interventions to manage vector-borne pathogen transmission and pesticide resistance. (3) strengthening agriculture and improving food security: for example, hatch project accession 7005298 is determining how rising temperatures will affect the severity and spread of disease caused by root-knot nematodes, 7004431 is identifying predator impacts on the efficacy of biostimulant bacteria and effects on plant health, and 7009842 is determining how pervasive plant parasitic nematode activity is on connecticut farms and is evaluating populations in fields with underlying issues that current cultural practices do not appear to correct. Separately, the presence of emerging contaminants such as micro- and nanoplastics and naturally occurring toxins like mycotoxins at elevated compromises food safety. The overarching goal of the hatch project accession 7004046 is to examine the risk of these contaminants to the food supply, especially their uptake and translocation by crop species, as well as their dynamics and fate in the agrifood system