The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded almost $600,000 in grants to an Arizona university for bug research.
The money is going to two different types of research at the University of Arizona’s entomology department.
$250,000, for one year, is going to support the Arizona Pest Management Centre, formed to be an education and outreach program for the state’s farmers.
$330,000 is going to study, over three years, a new way to control weeds and disease in lettuce crops. Rather than manual labour, the research suggests a soil steaming device could lower the use of pesticides.
The steam would disinfect the ground lettuce grows in and could reduce yield lost to disease by 80 percent or more.
Source: science.kjzz.org