Grants

This proposal outlines the planning phase for the Agroecology of Urban Food Farming(UFF) project (previously submitted) which will analyze the effectiveness of BIOAg practices on soil quality, food security, and socioeconomic resilience in Vancouver and Portland. This is consistent with WSU BIOAg program priorities of soil quality, food system resilience and sustainability in economically challenged […]

Quinoa is a highly nutritious and broadly adapted grain crop in high demand in the US and particularly in the Pacific Northwest region. However, very little is known about appropriate varieties and farming practices, including irrigation needs, fertility requirements and potential intercropping strategies to help control weeds and provide supplemental nitrogen. Our project would primarily […]

The goal of the full research project is to conduct dry bean variety trials, market surveys, and human nutrition education in Northwest Washington to increase local dry bean production, marketing and consumption. The goal of the planning grant is to gather essential baseline data regarding local dry bean production and farmgate sales, as well as […]

Columbia Basin farmers and the people that supply and support them are very interested in how to build soil quality (a BioAg priority area) in irrigated cropping systems. The WSU irrigated ag email system has 433 subscribers to the soil quality/health topic area, more than all but one of the 42 available topics. We have […]

This project addresses one Priority of the BioAg program: Integration of Livestock-Crop Integration and two topics covered by the Climate Friendly Farming program: Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Carbon Sequestration, Anaerobic Digestion (Biogas) and Biochar (pyrolysis). This project will generate preliminary data on the effect oxidized bio-chars will have on greenhouse gases (GHG)s emissions specifically (CO2) […]

This planning grant proposal will bring together researchers from three states (WA, OR, CA) and British Columbia that work in small fruit production (red raspberries focus) from a diverse set of disciplines (pest, nutrient and cultural management) to develop improved integrated practices for red raspberries. Our first actions are to bring together these collaborators to […]

Tomato and watermelon can be significantly impacted by Verticillium wilt, a soil-borne disease common throughout Washington. Symptoms impact plants later in development after most production costs have been incurred, resulting in a 25-100% crop loss in some years. Grafting vegetable crops onto resistant rootstock is a cultural control method that provides an organic and sustainable […]

Market forces are driving conventional Columbia Basin potato growers towards less-chemically-intensive pest management approaches, such as biological control. Insect-killing, entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs), which live in the soil, have great potential for controlling insects with belowground life stages — such as the Colorado potato beetle. Our initial results suggest that EPNs can be incredibly abundant in […]

The project addresses the first FY12 program area for biologically intensive and organic approaches to sustainable management of fertility and plant nutrition. The objective of the project is to identify pea lines that can be fall planted and will fix the maximum amount of nitrogen by early spring. Such lines would be suitable for intercropping […]

Our project will conduct a nutritional analysis of the biodiesel byproduct, and complete an economic analysis using the camelina biodiesel byproduct as ruminant feed. The studies contained in this proposal address the 2012 BioAg priority areas: provide information that is critical in utilization of canola and camelina meals in ruminant diets and thereby promoting livestock […]