GRIFFIN, Ga. — The Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SARE) program has awarded over $2.4 million in Research & Education Grants to further sustainable agriculture research across the Southern region for FY2018.
Systems research-based funded projects include cover crops in woody ornamental production, managing plant-parasitic nematodes through sod-based crop rotation, tea production in Florida, and expanding marketing opportunities for small-scale ruminant farmers.
Southern SARE also funded its first year of Education Grants – educational-based projects that focus on education and outreach activities across the Southern region. Funded projects include a regional water conference to improve producer adoption of water management practices, a cover crop website to encourage cover crop adoption, and farm business and financial planning.
Projects funded include:
LS18-287 Cover Crops in Woody Ornamental Production: Impact on plant growth, arthropod pests, soil-borne pathogens and weeds, $290,000, Tennessee State University, Karla Addesso,kaddesso@tnstate.edu
LS18-288 A Southern Regional Water Conference to Improve Producer Adoption of Sustainable Water Management Practices, $48,000, Texas A&M University, Diane Boellstorff, dboellstorff@tamu.edu
LS18-289, Development and Implementation of Ecologically Sound, System-based Tactics for Managing Pests and Insect-vectored Diseases in Cucurbit Production in the Southeast, $270,000, Auburn University, Henry Fadamiro, fadamhy@auburn.edu
LS18-290, A Southern Cover Crop Website to Encourage Cover Crop Adoption, $47,000, University of Georgia, Julia Gaskin, jgaskin@uga.edu
LS18-291, Managing Plant-parasitic Nematodes and Promoting Beneficial Soil Organisms Through Sod-based Crop Rotation, $200,000, University of Florida, Zane Grabau, zgrabau@ufl.edu
LS18-292 Taking Your Farm to the Next Level: Business and financial planning for sustainable farms and ranches, National Center for Appropriate Technology, Margo Hale, margoh@ncat.org
LS18-293 Building a System of Sustainable Agriculture in the Southeast Black Belt Region Through Education and Technical Assistance, $47,000, McIntosh Sustainable Environment and Economic Development, John Littles, johlit@darientel.net
LS18-294 Promoting Adoption of Cover Crops in Southeastern Farming Systems, $48,000, NC Foundation for Soil and Water Conservation, Michelle Lovejoy, ncfswc@gmail.com
LS18-295 Increasing Farm Profitability Through Whole Farm Record Keeping and Analysis, $43,000, Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group, Steve Muntz, stevemuntz@ssawg.org
LS18-296 HABESHA Works Program Expansion and Incubator Development, $30,000, HABESHA, Inc. Urban Agriculture Network, Cashawn Meyers, info@habeshainc.org
LS18-297 Shade and Ground Cover Growing Systems for Tea Production in Florida, $200,000, University of Florida, Brantlee Spakes Richter, bsr@ufl.edu
LS18-298 Biocontrol with Benefits: Enhancing sustainability by adding value, $260,000, USDA-ARS Southeastern Fruit and Tree Nut Research Laboratory, David Shapiro-Ilan, David.Shapiro@ars.usda.gov
LS18-299 Sustainable Management Options for Whitefly-transmitted Viruses in Cucurbit Production, $290,000, University of Georgia, Rajagopalbabu Srinivasan, babusri@uga.edu
LS18-300 Extending Roots of Fresh Stop Markets Across the Southeast Region, $268,000, University of Kentucky, Keiko Tanaka, ktanaka@uky.edu
LS18-301 Expanding Marketing Opportunities for Dried Nutraceutical Sericea Lespedeza Products for Small-scale Farmers, $290,000, Fort Valley State University, Thomas Terrill, terrillt@fvsu.edu
LS18-302 Educational Materials for Cover Crop Adoption and Use in the Subtropics and Tropics, $47,000, University of Florida, Danielle Treadwell, ddtreadw@ufl.edu
Research & Education Grants award up to $300,000 for up to three years of project activities and are open to teams of researchers from public and private institutions such as 1862 and 1890 land-grant universities, environmental agencies, USDA-ARS, non-governmental organizations, and community based organizations.
Southern SARE’s Education Grants award up to $50,000 for up to two years of work on educational-based projects and activities. The Education Grants are mainly targeted toward NGOs, but university researchers and other ag professionals in the sustainable ag community are eligible to apply.
Research & Education Grant Call for Proposals for FY2019 are currently open. Application deadline is June 1, 2018.
—Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education (SARE) program
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