Award Data

Large-scale swine production has grown dramatically in the past two decades, creating adverse environmental and health effects. In North Carolina alone, health impacts of atmospheric emissions are estimated to exceed $300 million. Coupled with environmental damages, this has resulted in moratoriums on new facilities, as well as tougher regulations for waste streams. An effective treatment and odor ...

Tobacco rattle virus (TRV) infects hundreds of diverse plant species causing reduced quality and yield, particularly in potato and ornamental crops. Current detection methods are limited to commercial protein-based assays that do not target all infective isolates or published nucleic acid based assays that require significant training and equipment resources. Agdia Incorporated has commercialized ...

The food supply chain consists of many potential contamination points including growing, harvesting, post-harvest handling, transport, processing, distribution, storage and packaging, and finally preparation by the consumer. There are 9.6 million cases of foodborne illness annually in US with an annual economic impact of $15.5 billion. Contamination also leads to spoilage of food and significant l ...

The proposed project pertains to the development of a novel phosphorus biofertilizercomprising special seeds and seed treatments to reduce the need for P fertilizers in cropproduction by up to 50%. Our biofertilizer is therefore an environmentally sustainable, and costeffectiveamendment to synthetic and organic phosphorus fertilizers. Sustainable production offood and energy crops is critical beca ...

Intellectual Merit: This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will assist in producing the next-generation approach for monitoring critical water resources stored in the seasonal snowpack. Agriculture is a significant user of ground and surface water in the United States, accounting for approximately 80 percent of the Nation's consumptive water use and over 90 percent in many Wes ...

Statement of the problem or opportunity:The conventional approach to industrially producing nitrogenous fertilizers helps feed about half of the world's population but is energy inefficient and requires extensive infrastructure. Together, the conventional Haber and Ostwald use about 1 - 2 % of the world's produced energy and produce almost 3 % of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. A r ...

The country increasingly seeks locally produced, healthy food. Shrimp can provide significantly to these desires while reducing dependence on imports and enabling creation of jobs in all strata of society.To realize these benefits, the cost of shrimp production needs to be reduced to meet the existing competitive market. The success of our project will bring high-technology at low cost to a key co ...

Diesel engines are critical to the agriculture sector--and in many other applications--due to their strong performance and vaunted durability. However, despite their many benefits, these engines are tied to the dirty emissions and price volatility of Diesel fuel. This Diesel dependence puts pressure on manufacturers to meet increasingly stringent emissions standards, and forces users to accept inc ...

Shellfish aquaculture is a rapidly expanding agricultural industry in the United States, with landings more than doubling in the last 5 years and creating many new jobs. Culture techniques and the water-filtering nature of oysters make them a very low impact crop with arguably, a net benefit to the environment (a unique trait compared to other intensively farmed proteins). Comprised of salt and br ...

Through the proposed USDA SBIR program, NanoSonic will provide wildland firefighters with lightweight, highly breathable, 2-way stretch fire protective garments with a previously unavailable combination of breathability, thermal protection, flexibility, and comfort during wildland firefighting operations. While current PPE garments meet NFPA 1977 standards, they are often criticized for their infl ...