News Stories - Page 70

It is not difficult to find somebody talking about methane these days. Simply turn on the TV, open your computers to your news affiliate of choice or log into any social media platform.

Twenty-five professionals representing agriculture, forestry and allied sectors graduated from the Advancing Georgia’s Leaders in Agriculture and Forestry Class of 2019-21 in November.

December is the start of the three-month winter season here in the Northern Hemisphere. In 2021, December started out 4 to 6 degrees Fahrenheit (F) warmer than normal. Whether this is likely to last through the rest of the winter depends on two major weather patterns that are affecting the winter climate in Georgia.

At the University of Georgia, Faith Critzer’s research focuses primarily on food safety in fresh produce, and in particular, mitigation of the pathogens that can cause outbreaks of foodborne illness. Her expertise in this critical area of research earned her a position on the Joint Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Meeting on Microbiological Risk Assessment.

Georgia-based Wayne Farms has announced a $1.1 million donation to help build a new Poultry Science Building at the University of Georgia. Wayne Farms is a longtime supporter of the university’s poultry science department, one of the top such programs in the nation.

If you celebrate Christmas, there is nothing like having a real tree to decorate in your home for the holidays. The festive aroma alone provides such a sense of nostalgia. But once the holidays have quickly come and gone, the next order of business is disposing of your tree.

A group of researchers has identified where within peanut’s genome the resistance to Groundnut Rosette Disease (GRD) lies, which will enable targeted plant breeding to give farmers a variety that can withstand the disease. By finding the major locus controlling GRD resistance and validating that locus as suitable for marker-assisted selection, the team achieved an historic accomplishment in 2021 in the fight against the most destructive peanut disease in Africa.

The Peanut Innovation Lab, partnering with SAWBO, recently made two animated videos about groundnut production in Southern Africa available in Portuguese. The translation comes as the lab works with Farmer to Farmer to train farmers in Mozambique, as well as in Malawi and Zambia.The videos, each around 5 minutes long, were made to help relay and reinforce good agronomic practices for farmers growing groundnuts, particularly in Malawi where the lab works with the Malawi Agricultural Diversification Activity (or AgDiv). Over time, the innovation lab has compiled guides with details specific to the region and in languages farmers understand.

A new scholarship established by University of Georgia alumnus-founded Benson’s Hospitality Group will benefit students enrolled in the hospitality and food industry management major in UGA's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

Stephen Arthur is passionate about crop management. For every problem, there is an answer, he says, but giving just one bit of advice won’t help a farmer manage his crop as well as providing him a big picture. Arthur has worked with the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Peanut for several years, first as a master’s student funded through the Peanut & Mycotoxin Innovation Lab and today as a PhD student working on a project creating production packages for Ghanaian groundnut farmers.