The Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute announced that world-renowned plant pathologist Jaimin Patel, Ph.D., has joined the center, further strengthening the LRC’s horticultural lighting and plant pathology program. Dr. Patel will collaborate with Dr. David Gadoury of Cornell University’s Division of Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology and Dr. Mark Rea of the LRC on a $1.7 million project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture to study the novel use of light to suppress a broad group of plant pathogens affecting sustainable production of organically grown crops.
“In stark contrast to conventional wisdom, which points to the favorability of temperature and relative humidity as primary drivers of pathogen epidemics in controlled environments, our research indicates that both visible and UV radiation have heretofore unappreciated roles as epidemic drivers,” said Patel. “This discovery opens new possibilities to suppress plant pathogens by selective manipulation of light.”
Right now, more than 7 billion people are competing for Earth’s dwindling supply of natural resources. By 2050, there will be 9 to 10 billion. To meet increasing demand, efficient and sustainable crop production and energy systems are needed.
Solid-state lighting has the potential to change the way crops are grown in controlled environments, and even the type of crops grown there. An expanding list of spectrally tuned SSL is available to modify morphological and chemical characteristics of plants, enabling growers to extract greater value from crop production. The technical developments of lighting for horticulture applications have fueled an expansion of controlled environments for crop production. However, controlled environments also present substantial challenges for pest and disease management. The research team at Cornell University and the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer seeks to understand and exploit light-dependent mechanisms for the purposes of suppressing plant pathogens in these challenging environments.
“The advancements in solid-state lighting offer unprecedented opportunities to manipulate wavelength, pulse duration, synchrony, and novel spectral combinations to produce suppressive effects on pathogens, while maintaining plant health and productivity,” said Patel.
Patel is the author of more than 40 scientific articles, and serves as the Associate Editor of Plant Health Progress, a peer-reviewed journal of applied plant health. Prior to joining the LRC, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Tropical Research and Education Center at the University of Florida, where he collaborated with scientists from around the world to study multiple crops and a variety of plant pathogens. His professional research career has provided advanced knowledge for the management of plant diseases through his many publications, presentations, and outreach activities for growers, consumers and other stakeholders.
For more information:
www.lrc.rpi.edu






Announcements
Job Offers
- Head Grower Greenhouse Canada
- Post Entry Quarantine Facility Manager
- Economic Policy Officer Agri-Tech Kentucky
- Licensing Manager North America
- Junior Sales Executive
- Fruit Breeder/Trait Discovery Scientist
- General Manager
- Regional Sales Manager – DACH Region
- Country Manager – Italy
- Country Manager – Spain
"Tweeting Growers"
Top 5 -yesterday
Top 5 -last week
- “Black growbags could benefit vegetable crops as well”
- Latvia: First greenhouse to grow cucumbers under LEDs uses landfill waste to produce energy
- "Moisture is the big danger in the next two months"
- "Even light intensity at every spot in the greenhouse"
- US (OH): 80 Acres Farms makes layoffs as tech job crunch continues
Top 5 -last month
- How farmers are cutting out supermarkets
- Combining vertical farming and greenhouse horticulture to decentralize lettuce production
- Higher light transmission and lower heat demand with double foil greenhouse
- Fresh produce chain hit by Lakeside Produce’s bankruptcy
- 30MHz declared bankrupt, curator 'optimistic about restart'
Receive the daily newsletter in your email for free | Click here
Other news in this sector:
- 2023-01-27 Investigating the right plant spectrum on Chinese medicinal crops
- 2023-01-27 NL: Future Crops goes bankrupt
- 2023-01-27 Cascades launches new eco-friendly packaging for fresh fruits and vegetables
- 2023-01-27 Italian vegetable harvesters are partnering with the Netherlands
- 2023-01-27 Growy acquires assets and team of Kalera International (&ever)
- 2023-01-27 Avedon joins Kind Technologies’ growth journey within the horticulture greenhouse market
- 2023-01-27 Farm Credit Canada is the lead investor in the Global Pioneer Fund
- 2023-01-27 Stolze moves to new shiny headquarter
- 2023-01-27 CAN: Land Betterment acquires 50% ownership in greenhouse operations
- 2023-01-27 Israeli startup growing ready-to-eat duckweed-based green for daily intake
- 2023-01-27 Village Farms raises $25 million
- 2023-01-26 Bakker Belgium introduces first e-truck in Belgium
- 2023-01-26 Dutch greenhouses make place for houses
- 2023-01-26 Eureka Sunrise wins superior taste award for BerryWorld
- 2023-01-26 Paper bag for naturally moist soil
- 2023-01-26 Japanese plant-based ingredients startup gets investments
- 2023-01-26 New Finnish website launched to link global fresh produce buyers
- 2023-01-26 Church collaborates with Muslim Aid to build 2,720 greenhouses in Bosnia
- 2023-01-26 Kevin van Berlo to Mexico for BVB and love
- 2023-01-26 70 years of Ridder: "In fact, we still apply the same vision as my grandfather"