The N.C. Department of Agriculture’s Research Stations Division recently awarded $1.5 million in grants for agricultural research. The funded projects aim to boost new crop production or involve innovative research to advance the agricultural economy in the state.

Since 2013, the General Assembly has allocated funding for special agricultural research – first through the Bioenergy Research Initiative and then later with an expansion to include the New and Emerging Crops Program in 2018.

The program’s mission is to identify potential new crops, value-added products and agricultural enterprises and provide the agricultural research, marketing support and education necessary to make the new crops or products commercially viable and profitable for North Carolina’s growers and agribusinesses.

This year the program mission expanded again to include Innovations to Advance the Agricultural Economy.

           “I continue to be impressed by our state’s agricultural researchers, and I’m happy to support their projects with these grants,” said Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. “I’m also happy that our state’s research stations provide a platform for most, if not all, of these projects to move off of the page and into the dirt. By investing in these research projects, we are investing in possibilities for this state that could pay dividends for our state’s farmers for many years to come.”

Below is a list of grant amounts, recipients, titles and descriptions for each of the projects awarded through the 2024-2025 New and Emerging Crops Program:

• $51,511 to N.C. State University’s Department of Horticultural Science to fund the project titled “Carolina Peas – Double -cropping Enablers” for two years.  An increase in demand for livestock and pet food creates an opportunity for farmers to ramp up production of legume grains. The project goal is to improve farm income by enabling a double-cropping system based on peas (the main ingredient in plant-based foods) grown during the winter.  Researchers will be testing varieties that could fit that production system, generate economic analysis of that double-cropping system and develop new genotypes for early harvest, disease resistance and high yield potential.
• $75,000 to NCSU’s Department of Horticultural Science to continue a project titled “North Carolina Grown Chinese Medicinal Herb” for two years.  Phase One of the project demonstrated that high quality annual and perennial herbs can be grown in western North Carolina and that there was strong interest from several herb buyers in the area.  In Phase Two, the project will engage more farmers in growing the herbs in highest demand and facilitate the selling of those herbs to the developing network of buyers.  Goals are to expand propagation and field production studies and help growers refine post-harvest handling and packaging techniques.  With an emphasis on quality, research will assist the farmers in creating a reputation among buyers as the source for high quality, domestically produced Chinese medicinal herbs.
• $125,936 to NCSU’s Department of Crops and Soil Sciences for a new two-year project titled “Expanding Alternative Grains in North Carolina.” To support North Carolina farmers who are looking for grain markets to diversify their on-farm earnings, research will evaluate seashore black rye production as an alternative grain for the food and beverage market, plus develop certified seed production avenues for this and other potential cover crops.  Goals are to develop an education program to include heirloom rice, seashore black rye, sesame for food use and malting barley grown on salt-water intruded soils.  As cover crops and alternative grains expand in acreage, it is important to be ready with best management practices for each crop, have certified seed production and provide education to end users to keep the markets of these grains strong and growing.
• $118,303 to NCSU’s Department of Horticultural Science to continue the project titled “Carolina Super Teas” for two years.  Caffeinated drinks, including tea, yaupon and yerba mate (collectively called teas), are the most widely consumed beverage on the planet.  There is considerable potential for the genetic enhancement and development of both yaupon (Ilex vomitoria) and tea (Camellia sinensis) as improved specialty crops for North Carolina.  Recent work on developing cold hardy tea has been successful, surviving 0 F.  Next steps are to systematically evaluate selections and hybrids for cold hardiness, regional adaptability and metabolic profiles (including caffeine and theacrine).  The overall goal of this project is to develop new North Carolina crops (Ilex and Camellia) for next-generation super teas and extracts, with traits for both commercial production and landscape plants.
• $100,000 to NCSU’s Department of Horticultural Science to fund “Advancing Tea Production in North Carolina” for two years. This project is complimentary to Carolina Super Teas with the theory that with North Carolina’s favorable climate, similar to tea- growing regions in Asia, there is a great opportunity to grow tea locally.  Researchers will study how to propagate, grow and fertilize different types of tea plants and explore environmentally friendly ways to manage pests.  By the end of the project, growers will have access to information on how to grow high-quality tea while using sustainable farming practices.
• $100,000 to NCSU’s Department of Crops and Soil Sciences Science to fund “Hemp Grain and Seed Production” for one year.  Fiber hemp acreage is steadily increasing in North Carolina, and farmers have voiced concern over high input costs. Mainly, imported seed costs growers between $350 and $500 per acre.  This project will develop fiber hemp seed production practices that will bolster local seed supply and reduce farmer input costs.  Additionally, this project will develop preliminary grain hemp production recommendations.

Below is a list of grant amounts, recipients, titles and descriptions for each of the projects awarded through the 2024-25 newly formed Innovations to Advance the Agricultural Economy:

• $119,459 to NCSU’s Electrical & Computer Engineering Department’s project titled “Automatic AI-based Nematode Counting System” for one year.  Traditional methods for nematode detection and identification are labor-intensive and time-consuming, as lab staff members manually count these pests under a microscope.  Automating this process would enhance efficiency, reduce the workload for technicians and provide farmers with timely and precise information for crop management decisions.  The goal of this project is to create a fully automated artificial intelligence counting system that integrates seamlessly into the existing technician workflow. Results from scanning will be integrated into the technicians’ databases, streamlining their processes without adding additional steps to their workflow.
• $147,415 to NCSU’s Department of Biological & Agricultural Engineering  for a two-year project titled “Cooling Mat Evaluation on Sow Performance.”  Farrowed sows are comfortable in a temperature range of 61 to 72 F.  High temperature reduces the sow’s reproductive performance, lactation, and hence, the weight gain and future performance of her litter.  However, her piglets need a cozy 77 F or higher during farrowing.  The NCSU Sow Mat is a stand-alone, closed-loop system that uses Peltier modules to cool the recirculating water that cools the sow without cooling the atmosphere for the piglets.  Three sows on functional mats will be compared to three sows on dummy mats over three farrowings on a farm in eastern North Carolina.  The sows and their litters will be monitored until weaning. Mat performance (temperature, electricity use, coefficient of performance), sow performance (respiration rate, core temperature, feed consumption, weight change, body condition) and litter weight gain will be compared between the two treatments.
• $100,000 to NCSU’s Department of Horticultural Science for a three-year project titled “Evaluation of Novel Native Nursery Shrubs.” Recently, North Carolina passed the Native Plants Policy, which requires that native plants be used for landscaping state-owned or funded landscapes.  However, nurseries frequently struggle with limited options of marketable cultivars and no propagation or production protocols.  This proposal aims to evaluate and pre-breed four under-domesticated North Carolina native shrubs to be the next native nursery crops. Amelanchier arborea, Amelanchier spicata, Cyrilla racemiflora and Euonymus americanus will be evaluated on their potential to be naturally high in ornamental value, low-maintenance, tolerant to a wide variety of environments and wild animal friendly.  The main goal is to release cultivar candidates with propagation and production protocols for nursery production.
• $149,376 to NCSU’s Department of Animal Science for a three-year project titled “Generating Populations of Feed Efficient Cattle.”  Utilizing an electronic feed and water monitoring system (Vytelle Sense) to determine nutrient intake, residual feed intake can be calculated to select offspring that eat less without sacrificing growth performance.  The goal of this proposal is to develop genetic parameters and reproductive tools for generating feed-efficient cattle in North Carolina. Data collected during this project will allow us to identify a means to advance the efficiency of propagating superior animals within a herd and enhance the sustainability of the beef industry.
• $150,000 to NCSU’s Department of Horticultural Science to fund the project titled “Innovation to Manage Invasive Strawberry Disease” for two years.  A new invasive pathogen, Neopestalotiopsis sp, called Neo-P for short, causes severe disease and significant losses to strawberry crops where the disease occurs. This proposal has three goals. First, field experiments will be conducted to evaluate the relative susceptibility or resistance of 32 lines.  This will offer short-term information on lines suitable to grow in North Carolina.  Second, the state’s strawberry breeding program has identified 288 lines that will be screened using a marker for resistance developed in Florida. Resistant selections will be incorporated into a breeding program to develop a long-term solution.  Finally, strains will be collected and characterized to enhance knowledge of the pathogen and identify strains best suited to screen plants bred for resistance.  
• $150,000 to NCSU’s Department of Crops and Soil Sciences to fund a two-year project titled “Using Sesame to Reduce Nematode Populations.” In addition to being drought tolerant, unappealing to deer and requiring low input, a preliminary on-farm study showed that sesame can result in in-field nematode populations reducing by 81% to 97%.  Researchers will investigate sesame’s impacts on nematode populations more rigorously to determine impacts within a season compared to a susceptible control as well as if these impacts carry over to the subsequent year’s crop.  Ultimately, this project will help develop crop rotation guidelines that include sesame as a means to sustainably manage soil nematode populations.
• $93,000 to OsRostrum, Inc. for a two-year project titled “Validation of iPhone Hoof Phenotyping Platform.” The PhIT platform is a fully automated mobile phenotyping technology that provides objective measurements of the structural traits of livestock to inform breeding and management decisions.  Lameness is pervasive within U.S. dairy and beef herds and has massive consequences on the health and profitability of these cattle.  To help breed and manage sounder cattle, hoof traits are the first morphometrics module on the PhIT platform.   The goal of this project is to conduct validation work needed to further the adoption of this technology in genetic evaluation pipelines. Researchers will conduct statistical measurement system analyses to show that PhIT traits are more accurate and repeatable than visual scoring scales.

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