Grant funds UC strawberry breeding, gene editing University of California, Davis, is getting $6.2 million in federal fund- ing for research to protect California strawberry crops from diseases and pests. and amid potential restrictions on pes- ticide use. trails crops such as tomatoes and wheat in genetic innovation.
Rural areas to get $759 million for internet upgrades The U.S. Department of Agriculture is providing $759 million in the third round of funding to expand high-speed internet access for rural communities. The funds will be distributed for ru- ral broadband projects in California, 23 other states, Puerto Rico, Guam and Palau. The disbursement in loans and grants comes from the 2021 federal infrastructure law, which will provide $65 billion for internet-access improve- ments throughout the U.S. “People living in rural towns across the nation need high-speed internet to run their businesses, go to school and connect with their loved ones,” U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement. “USDA partners with small towns, lo- cal utilities and cooperatives, and private companies to increase access to high- speed internet so people in rural America have the opportunity to build brighter futures,” he added. USDA earlier said it would provide $1.6 billion in 2022 in its third round of ReConnect funding. That money goes to applicants in areas that lack access to internet speeds of 100 megabits per second for downloading and 20 mega- bits per second for uploading. For more information on the rural broadband program, visit www.usda. gov/reconnect. To learn more about USDA investment resources for rural areas, go to www. rd.usda.gov or contact the nearest USDA Rural Development state office. to pathogens through the genes that al- ready exist but could be modified with this knowledge,” Knapp said. “If we were able to edit a gene that improves disease resis- tance, people would want us to use that in breeding.” He said the intent is to produce dis- ease-resistant cultivars and identify better ways to diagnose, prevent and manage disease. The research project will also include an economic fore- cast evaluating the consequences of production changes. Researchers from the UC Department of Plant Pathology and the UC Department of Plant Sciences are participating in the study, as are scientists from California Polytechnic State University, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, UC Berkeley, University of Florida and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service. California grows 90% of the straw- berries produced in the U.S., includ- ing the world’s leading supply of or- ganic strawberries. They are primarily grown on some 35,000 acres in Salinas, Watsonville, Santa Maria, Oxnard and Orange County.
“We need to have the technology so that we can deal with the challenges strawberries face around the world,” Steve Knapp, director of the UC Davis Strawberry Breeding Center, said in a statement. “Can we use genetic knowl- edge to change the DNA in a specific way to get the resistance we need?” UC researchers say strawberry growing
Knapp, a professor in the Department of Plant Sciences, said a key priority is identifying whether changing DNA molecules can improve disease resis- tance and what technologies would be needed. Ensuring some genes are expressed while others are suppressed would be part of the analysis, he said. “We’re trying to build in natural resistance
Under a four-year grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Davis researchers will use plant breeding, gene editing and other technologies to help ensure the resilien- cy of strawberries in a warming climate
thanks OUR generous sponsors California YF&R of the inaugural clay shoot fundraiser to benefit FarmPAC ® !
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12 Ag Alert November 2, 2022
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