Advancing NW Fruit Research

Advancing NW Fruit Research. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

One of the best ways to get a better crop is to understand it better and that takes a lot of research. Of course that also takes money. According to Jay Brunner, Director of WSU’s Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center they have been very fortunate lately in receiving a number of research grants.

BRUNNER: The funding was not for subsidies or anything like that, it was to fund competitive research projects and the first year of the funding there was about $29 million dollars available and Vince Jones who is an entomologist here at the Research Center led a group of scientists who successfully won one of those grants for $2 and a quarter million dollars and it focuses on enhancing biological control in western orchard systems.

That project is currently up and running. Brunner says again WSU has been very fortunate.

BRUNNER: Several groups within WSU submitted grants and scientists working at WSU will actually receive about $15 million dollars.

WSU is getting a boost from the research dollars which in turn will help out northwest fruit growers in the long term.

BRUNNER: Part of the group here is funded, what’s called the rosbreed research project and it’s in conjunction with people at Michigan State University and Washington State University and a couple of other institutions and it’s looking at the breeding genetics and genomics of rosaceae which includes obviously apple.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.