Strawberries

A research and extension team based at the University of Florida (UF) has this week revealed that it has been selected by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), through its National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), to receive a four-year, US$2.9m federal grant to expand efforts in forecasting outbreaks of two fungal diseases in strawberries.

The grant will help a multi-university team, led by plant pathologist Natália Peres, grow its programme to fight anthracnose fruit rot and botrytis fruit rot, adding to a disease prediction system that has been developed over the past four years.

'Dr Peres is a world-class researcher in IFAS and we are pleased that she and her collaborators were able to attract this funding,' said Mark McLellan, dean for research with UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. Their work is already helping strawberry growers protect their crops, save money and protect the environment by using fungicides more efficiently.'

The USDA grant was one of 28 awarded by NIFA through its specialty crop research initiative, totalling more than US$46m and awarded to 22 universities and USDA facilities.

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