This $450,500 Project Grant was awarded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program. The primary goal is to screen and release new low-input centipedegrass cultivars with improved seed yield, stress resilience, and turfgrass quality that can be deployed across the Southeastern United States. The grant leverages the combined expertise of North Carolina State University, the University of Florida, and the...
This $6.8 million project grant from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program (CFDA #10.310) will fund the development of "Smart Foodscapes" as a transformative paradigm for beef production in the Western U.S. Awarded to Utah State University on September 1, 2021 for a five-year period concluding August 31, 2026, the grant will support research, extension, and education...
The University of Florida (UF) has been awarded a $749,785 Project Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program. The 3-year project aims to enhance the sustainability of farming by integrating perennial grasses and cover crops into traditional crop rotations, along with optimal grazing practices. This approach will be tested at two field sites in North Florida to compare it...
The University of Florida was awarded a $650,000 Project Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grants program (AFRI, CFDA #10.310). The three-year grant will fund research into the biosynthesis of flavonoids in sorghum plants, which produce compounds that protect against stresses from climate change and have potential health benefits. Specifically, the university will...
This $749,660 Project Grant from the US Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA) under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program will fund research into the use of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) as a biostimulant alternative to synthetic nitrogen fertilizer for tall fescue and bermudagrass forage systems in the Southeastern United States. Auburn University, in collaboration with the University of Tennessee under a $249,660...
The University of Florida was awarded a $649,934 Project Grant from the United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture to conduct research securing resilient food production and safeguarding ecosystem services in agroecosystems under increasing climate variability. The three-year award, made under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grants program, will fund determination of how precipitation variability, grazing, and land management...
This $225,000 Project Grant award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) program aims to uncover the role of non-coding DNA sequences in regulating agronomic traits, using the grass awn as a model. The research will focus on three key objectives: 1) Identifying putative regulatory DNA elements across grass genomes, 2) Associating variation in these conserved non-coding sequences with awn traits, and 3) Dissecting the function of...
This $2,500,000 Project Grant was awarded by the Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (CFDA 10.310) program. The grant will fund research to examine the role of invasive plants as conduits for pathogen transmission across ecosystem boundaries, with a focus on understanding the eco-evolutionary dynamics of disease emergence in agricultural and natural systems. The research team, led by the University of...
The University of Florida will receive $650,000 under a Project Grant award from the United States Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture to conduct research comparing alternative biotechnology approaches for complete suppression of flowering in energycane. The research aims to elevate biocontainment of energycane by preventing gene flow to sexually compatible weedy relatives and inform regulators about the precision and effectiveness of alternative approaches....
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) awarded a $936,019 Project Grant under the Alfalfa Seed and Alfalfa Forage Systems Program (CFDA 10.330) to the University of California, Davis. The project aims to (1) characterize the genetic diversity of 1,000 alfalfa germplasm accessions and map genes, (2) phenotypically evaluate unique and previously unused germplasm accessions and populations in multi-location trials, (3) release at least eight germplasm...