The USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) recently announced the award recipients of more than $1.2 million in Alfalfa and Forage Research Program (AFRP) funding to study an array of issues affecting the alfalfa industry.
Now in its second year, the AFRP was created to support integrated, collaborative research and technology transfer to improve the efficiency and sustainability of alfalfa forage and seed production systems. It encourages projects that establish multi-disciplinary networks to address priority national or regional science needs of the alfalfa industry.
The following projects were recently awarded funding:
- Re-establishing integrated pest management recommendations for aphids in alfalfa hay in the low desert ($206,000; University of Arizona, California, Utah)
- Developing molecular markers for enhancing resistance to drought and high salinity in alfalfa ($215,00; USDA-ARS, Prosser/New York, Utah)
- Potato leafhopper threshold revised for alfalfa host resistance and alfalfa grass mixtures ($215,000; University of Maryland, Ohio, Wisconsin)
- Impact of microbial inoculants on the quality and fermentation stability of alfalfa round-bale baleage ($213,333; Mississippi State, University of Georgia, Wisconsin)
- Management tools to improve forage quality and persistence of alfalfa ($203,213; Cornell, University of Minnesota, Kentucky)
- Subsurface drip irrigation, deficit irrigation strategies and improved varieties to improve alfalfa water use efficiency under drought conditions ($195,000; University of California, Arizona, New Mexico)
“The AFRP continues to pay dividends to the industry,” says National Alfalfa & Forage Alliance President Beth Nelson. “This research helps keep alfalfa competitive with other cropping choices.”
AFRP funds are collaborative in nature, meaning each project submission must include collaboration among organizations in at least three states as a requirement of funding. Researchers from 13 states will share in this funding.
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