Award Data

Agricultural output generated by greenhouse and urban farming is expected to increase rapidly in the next decade. In order to sustain year-round operations with optimum use of resources, these industries rely on grow-lights. Solid state lighting that is optimized for plant growth will offer substantial savings in energy cost, and thus, are poised to capture a large percentage of this multimillion ...

Commercial producers of nursery crops, plant seed, and food crops all require assurance of healthy planting stock. To address this need, laboratories, institutions and agencies, worldwide, use a variety of methods to examine plant materials and demonstrate that seeds, cuttings, and plants test free of pathogens. Such tests provide crops a passport to travel and give the grower confidence that a he ...

In summary, Phase I of this project will seek to establish feasibility of the mass harvesting system for high density grove through scaled prototype testing and to develop a functional design concept of the Over the Top Platform, while Phase II will fully develop the Geo-Spider OTP prototype mounted with the mass harvesting system and further validate a full scale mass harvesting. The Geo-Spider, ...

Shading vegetables and fruits can reduce temperatures resulting in improved fruit set, increase fruit size and quality, and reduce water consumption. Shading materials for reducing light intensity or transmission have been used extensively in the nursery industry as well as with large commercial growers of high value fruits and vegetables for many years. The physiological processes of plants have ...

Ranked as one of the world's most valuable commercial seafood, tuna species belonging to the Thunnus genus are considered the most important and endangered fish in worldwide trade. Extensive research to develop methods to distinguish Thunnus at the species level has significantly contributed to the enormous databanks of genetic information on these fish. However to date, no single approach ha ...

The Illinois Soybean Association and the USDA initiated and supported the original research project that produced the prototype Global Food in 3?D and underlies the proposed new product, Global Feed in 3?D. The expected user groups were small and mid?sized farmer leaders and allied analysts and stakeholders as a result of the research's original design and goals. The research outcome of this ...

Sheep ranching and wool production have been a part of our country & #8223;s rural heritage for more than a hundred years, with small and mid-sized ranches serving as the backbone of our country & #8223;s sheep operations. Presently, small operators account for more total ewes than larger operations. This means that small ranches offer the best potential for growth of sheep operations in the futur ...

The primary objectives of this Phase II project are to 1) validate performance of the prototype resequencing pathogen microarray application for detection and identification of selected food-borne pathogens, including varieties of viruses, bacteria and eukaryotic agents; 2) iterate and port the prototype application to a more practical, "market-friendly" product form factor that requires less expe ...

The national demand for energy and need for economic development has been driving efforts to create a domestic biofuels industry. Significant investment by both the public and private sectors have resulted in progress but recent government rule making has set ambitious requirements for renewable fuel supplies that can not be met with existing technologies or feedstocks. This significant unmet mark ...