Presidential Interdisciplinary Seed Grants

Peaches are a cultural icon as well as a historically important agricultural commodity in Georgia while blueberry production has significantly increased over the last decade leading Georgia to be among the top three peach and blueberry producing states in the U.S. The Georgia peach and blueberry industries have an annual combined farm gate value of over $433 million and economic impact exceeds $1 billion on the state economy, however, these economically important crops in Georgia are threatened by numerous pest and disease problems for which farmers have to make multiple spray applications every year which increases cost of production and decreases profitability for farmers. In this situation, it is critical for farmers to use more advanced technologies including remote sensing, unmanned aerial vehicles, and other technologies to assess the pest pressure and make spray applications in a more economically efficient and environmentally safe manner. To help Georgia farmers address these challenges, we have assembled a multidisciplinary team of faculty members from College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and College of Engineering to 1) evaluate remote sensing technologies to assess pest densities/pressure to enable site-specific management, and 2) evaluate effectiveness and feasibility of precision spray technologies on ground and aerial application equipment for site-specific pest management. Using these technologies will help farmers scout large fields of high-value specialty fruit crops including blueberries and peaches to determine pest densities and make spray applications in a more efficient and timely manner leading to higher profitability for farmers and sustained supply of high-quality local fruits in the market.

Team Lead

Ashfaq Sial
Plant Protection & Pest Management
Lilli.Stagg@uga.edu

Team Members

Phillip Brannan
Plant Pathology Department

Md Sultan Mahmud
Plant Pathology Department

Guoyu Lu
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Simerjeet Virk
Crop & Soil Scences Department

Jonathan Oliver
Plant Pathology Department

Glen Rains
Entomology Department

Brett Blaauw
Entomology Department