NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665

October 29, 1998

Regional Scab Research Programs Likely Recipients of ARS Funding

Agricultural scientists in the Dakotas and Minnesota are likely to receive more than $1.5 million from the current fiscal-year budget of USDA's Agricultural Research Service for work on projects related to Fusarium head blight (FHB or scab). North Dakota's share of that funding should total about $825,000, says a North Dakota State University researcher who sits on a committee of the U.S. National Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative that drafted the recommendations.

"It's ARS money, so they have final say. We should know in a few weeks," says Richard Horsley, NDSU's six-rowed barley breeder.

The U.S. National Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative is a cooperative research effort carried out by federal and state researchers, with input from commodity groups and businesses that have stakes in the wheat and barley industries. The initiative involves research that focuses on six areas: variety development; germplasm introduction; chemical and biological control; epidemiology and disease management; food safety, toxicology and utilization; and biotechnology.

If the ARS approves the funding recommendations, Horsley says four of NDSU's plant breeding teams will receive $70,000 each this year for scab-related research that will focus on breeding, pathology and quality evaluation. Those four teams are involved with work on two-rowed barley, six-rowed barley, hard red spring wheat and durum.

"The six-rowed and two-rowed development teams will pool their money," Horsley says.

Another breeding team that works on hard white spring wheat is set to receive $35,000-only half as much because there are less at-risk acres from scab for this class of wheat, whose production area is largely western North Dakota, Horsley explains.

With respect to barley, the area of germplasm introduction would involve research linked to nurseries in China and screening the worldwide germplasm collection for scab tolerance. For these efforts, researchers in Minnesota and North Dakota are now scheduled to receive $50,000 in ARS funding.

Another $35,000 is earmarked for research at NDSU to test for the resistance of barley to scab. This research falls under the epidemiology and disease management area and will be carried out by Brian Steffenson, an NDSU plant pathologist.

Horsley says this year $90,000 in ARS funding is slated for research and development of a scab forecast system, which will involve environment and pathogen monitoring. This project is being managed by Len Francl, another NDSU plant pathologist.

Citing one final example from the funding proposal submitted to ARS, Horsley points to the area of chemical and biological control. With ARS approval, researchers working in North Dakota will have about $54,000 for conducting fungicide trials next summer.

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Source: Richard Horsley (701) 231-8142

Editor: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136