Award Data

SummaryNitrogen balance plays a critical role in agricultural food security and biodiversity. While some nitrogen addition, such as fertilization, is highly beneficial to agriculture, too much can result in lower crop yields and plant loss. Air pollution can tip the nitrogen balance toward unhealthy soil and poor growing conditions and affect a plant's ability to cope with drought. Understandi ...

Water is a critical and growing issue for our planet in both human use as well as the need for food production to feed a growing world population. Agriculture plays a dominant role in this challenge as the single largest user of water, accounting for an estimated 70% of all use by humans. There are 680 million acres of irrigated agriculture in the world (FAO) and 55 million acres of irrigated crop ...

Alcohol and drug use is epidemic in rural America, as geographic barriers impede contact between youth and service providers, there is a shortage of mental health professionals and low literacy precludes extensive written assessment and education.Drawing on research from substance abuse prevention and treatment, effective game design and adaptation of software for rural conditions, Crossroads deve ...

According to a report by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2011, approximately 48 million Americans get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die each year from food poisoning, also known as foodborne illness. Bacteria are the source of many food poisoning cases because they can multiply and spread in foods that are contaminated. Symptoms of food poisoning can vary and develop ...

CBB Repel will help growers to protect their coffee crops from the most damaging coffee pest in the world, while promoting responsible environmental stewardship. If successful, CBB Repel will allow stakeholders who have been suffering with the scourge of this invasive CBB species, to reengage on the development of the healthy, prosperous, and energetic local communities centered on the small- and ...

In this Phase II SBIR project, Vuronyx Technologies will investigatehigh performance BPA free epoxy coatings for food and beverage cans.Canning of foods and beverages in metal containers is extensively used for food preservation and storage. The protective coating applied on the inside surface of the food/beverage container should be safe for food contact, have excellent adhesion to the substrate, ...

The long-term aim of this project is to provide growers of honeybee-dependent crops and commercial beekeepers with SPLAT Bloom and SuperBoost, two semiochemical-based products to improve the health and performance of pollinators in US crop fields. Applied together, these two products will provide a safe and effective means to 1) improve the pollination performance of honeybee colonies by focusing ...

Fossil fuels are the dominant energy source in the agriculture sector, comprising a large fraction of farming operational expenditures and emitting CO2 as a greenhouse gas. Despite recent market penetration, renewable energy adoption on farms remains low. Large capital costs, intermittency, and immobility of renewable energy prevents adoption on small and mid-size farms. A particularly detrimental ...

Small farms are critical to the futureof America. Small farms promote and sustain communities, create jobs, improve the health of the land and of the people who live on it. Currently small to mid-sized farms raising pasture-based livestock have been left to invent/build their own feeding/watering systemsand are at a disadvantage to large, fully automated, high-efficiency systems on large scale far ...

Rice is a major source of food in many parts of the world and its consumption can be a major contributor to the overall dietary arsenic intake in populations that are not exposed to high levels of arsenic in drinking water. Long-term arsenic exposure has been linked to increased risks of health complications including cancer, cardiovascular, and pulmonary diseases. Arsenic accumulation in rice gra ...