The Western SARE Graduate Student program invests in graduate students to conduct innovative research and outreach for advancing sustainable agriculture knowledge and practices in the West. This grant program provides graduate students the opportunity to conduct research and outreach alongside producers and educators to prepare students to understand the challenges and nuances of agricultural production.
Since 2018, Western SARE provided $2,743,462 to fund 102 projects. These projects led by graduate students engaged 527 producers in research activities; offered 409 consultations to agricultural stakeholders; hosted more than 200 on-farm demonstrations, 62 tours, and 12 online trainings; and produced about 400 professional talks and presentations and 140 peer-reviewed and extension publications. Graduate Student projects reached almost 9,300 producers and 6,000 agricultural service providers, demonstrating the relevant impact that these projects already have in the agricultural community.
This report highlights the innovation and diversity of a portion of the Western SARE Graduate Student portfolio. Students from Idaho are developing innovative practices to control nematodes, students from Oregon and Colorado are studying sustainable ways to control plant pathogens in grapes and peppers, while a project from Washington is identifying producers’ roadblocks to adopting Integrated Pest Management approaches. Two projects from Utah are studying the interaction between plants and animals – one by looking at how feed types affect bison meat and the second by developing four mason bee species for pollination of berry crops. A student from Washington is studying tea plant propagation for nursery production to further develop an incipient industry. Soil health is being researched in Montana, California, Oregon, Arizona, and Wyoming. All in all, let’s celebrate the innovative research by a cadre of promising agricultural professionals!