Chronicle Online e-News
Cornell researchers win $3.7 million in grants to help create vibrant
New York agricultural future
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/March08/Farm.viabi
lity.lc.html
March 6, 2008
By Lauren Chambliss
cunews@cornell.edu
Projects ranging from such traditional issues as increasing
productivity on dairy farms to creating new markets by using
21st-century Internet strategies to link small- and medium-sized
producers to buyers are being supported by $3.7 million in grants to
Cornell from the New York Farm Viability Institute (NYFVI), a
state-supported nonprofit corporation. The grants have been awarded
to researchers in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS)
and Cornell Cooperative Extension.
The 27 funded projects are designed to produce measurable results at
the farm level and create a vibrant and viable agricultural industry
statewide.
The grants range from $6,000 to test whether harvesting hay at a
particular time of day affects milk quality in dairy herds to
$325,000 for a multidisciplinary approach to combating the cucumber
mosaic virus in snap bean, a new threat to New York agriculture that
has cost the state $10 million since 2001 in the processing industry
alone.
One project funded in Ontario County trains farmers how to interact
with media on farm-related stories to improve neighbor relations,
while another provides New York FarmNet with $216,208 to assist at
least 75 farms statewide in developing business plans for new
ventures.
A healthy environment is also high on NYFVI's agenda. Lois Levitan,
program leader of Cornell's Environmental Risk Analysis Program in
the Department of Communication, received $226,890 for outreach
efforts to raise farmers' and farming communities' awareness of
recycling of agricultural plastics, including silo bags and
greenhouse pots. Each year, about 2.5 million pounds of plastic film
are discarded by New York's dairy farms alone.
Developing and implementing integrated pest management practices is
another way to minimize risks to the environment. Daniel Peck, soil
ecologist and entomologist in Geneva, N.Y., received nearly $200,000
to develop best-management practices for controlling invasive crane
flies, a major new threat to turfgrass. Improved detection and
monitoring techniques, selection and timing of control products and
cultural control tactics will be investigated and promoted.
"We are exceptionally pleased with our partnership with the NYFVI,"
says Michael Hoffmann, director of the Cornell's Agricultural
Experiment Station and CALS' adviser to the NYFVI board of directors.
"The institute has engaged the agricultural community across the
state and is responding to identified needs by supporting highly
relevant research and outreach activities. It is a new funding model
that other states and land-grant universities need to seriously
consider."
The NYFVI was established in 2003 with initial funding from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture Rural Business-Cooperative Service and
continuing support from the New York State Department of Agriculture
and Markets and in-kind support from CALS.
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Lauren Chambliss is a communications specialist with the Cornell
Agricultural Experiment Station in Ithaca.
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