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Under the microscope

Brick Goldman, the current owner and farm manager of Goldman Farm in Charlotte County, Virginia, at a Small Farm Outreach Program event. Image courtesy of Virginia State University.

Man at farmer's market
Brick Goldman, the current owner and farm manager of Goldman Farm in Charlotte County, Virginia, at a Small Farm Outreach Program event. Image courtesy of Virginia State University.

Supporting urban agriculture

Virginia Tech and Virginia State University are partnering on two projects as part of a USDA $40 million investment in education, technical assistance, outreach, and research for urban producers.

VSU’s Small Farm Outreach Program and Virginia Tech’s Center for Food Systems and Community aim to build a bridge between the USDA and urban farmers, who represent a growing source of green space and access to fresh produce for many urban consumers.

Project activities will include mini grants, an online resource center, an urban agriculture tool lending library, a summit and smaller regional meetings, an urban agriculture certification program hosted by VSU, equity trainings for practitioners, and an assessment of urban agriculture. Read more.

Faba bean plants are being grown at the Tidewater Research and Agricultural Extension Center and throughout the mid-Atlantic region in an initiative to introduce them as sustainable cover and cash crops. Photo by Suzanne Pruitt for Virginia Tech.

Faba bean plants are being grown at the Tidewater Research and Agricultural Extension Center and throughout the mid-Atlantic region in an initiative to introduce them as sustainable cover and cash crops. Photo by Suzanne Pruitt for Virginia Tech.
Faba bean plants are being grown at the Tidewater Research and Agricultural Extension Center and throughout the mid-Atlantic region in an initiative to introduce them as sustainable cover and cash crops. Photo by Suzanne Pruitt for Virginia Tech.

Developing the faba bean as a sustainable mid-Atlantic crop

Professor and Virginia Cooperative Extension Specialist Maria Balota is piloting a $2.7 million multistate project funded by the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture Specialty Crops Research Initiative to introduce the faba bean as a sustainable fall and winter crop in the mid-Atlantic region.

Balota says faba beans are great sources of protein and fiber, as well as good cover crops that improve soil health, slow erosion, and control pests, disease, and weeds.

In addition to cultivating faba beans that can thrive in the fall and winter months, researchers plan to develop the most nutritious and flavorful beans and share the project’s outcomes with growers. Read more.

Sally Dickinson and her trained detection dog, Flint, search the vineyard at the Alson H. Smtih Jr. Agricultural Research and Extension Center for spotted lanternfly egg masses. They are beginning to recruit other people with their dogs to do the same. It’s a four-year project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Photo by Luke Hayes for Virginia Tech.

Sally Dickinson and her trained detection dog, Flint, search the vineyard at the Alson H. Smtih Jr. Agricultural Research and Extension Center for spotted lanternfly egg masses. They are beginning to recruit other people with their dogs to do the same. It’s a four-year project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Sally Dickinson and her trained detection dog, Flint, search the vineyard at the Alson H. Smtih Jr. Agricultural Research and Extension Center for spotted lanternfly egg masses. They are beginning to recruit other people with their dogs to do the same. It’s a four-year project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Photo by Luke Hayes for Virginia Tech.

Training dogs to sniff out the spotted lanternfly

“Dog detectives” trained by researchers in the School of Animal Sciences may soon be on the front lines of detection of spotted lanternfly eggs. Associate Professor Erica Feuerbacher and Ph.D. candidate Sally Dickinson are completing a study to train a network of dogs and their handlers to locate the invasive pests.

Feuerbacher and Mizuho Nita, a Virginia Cooperative Extension specialist and associate professor in the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, partnered with researchers at Texas Tech University for the project, which is funded by the USDA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative. Read more.

“It inspired me to think about ways that we can empower the producers, but also work to help alleviate some of the burdens they face along the way. This same concept directly applies to my work with farmers back in Virginia," said Lydia Fitzgerald. Photo courtesy of Linda Fitzgerald.

Woman kneeling in purple long sleeve shirt.
“It inspired me to think about ways that we can empower the producers, but also work to help alleviate some of the burdens they face along the way. This same concept directly applies to my work with farmers back in Virginia," said Lydia Fitzgerald. Photo courtesy of Linda Fitzgerald.

Taking soil health outreach to Senegal

Lydia Fitzgerald, the Virginia Tech/Natural Resource Conservation Service Partnership soil health and integrated conservation agronomist traveled to Senegal last year to bring soil health outreach and education to Senegalese farmers.

Her workshops on soil health supported an ongoing effort by Ozzie Abaye, the Thomas B. Hutcheson Jr. Memorial Professor in Agronomy, to increase production of mung beans as a nutritious and sustainable crop in Senegal. Read more.

Zinnias are one ingredient in the Virginia Tech Diverse Pollinator Garden. Photo by Anthony Wright for Virginia Tech.

Zinnias are one ingredient in the Virginia Tech Diverse Pollinator Garden.
Zinnias are one ingredient in the Virginia Tech Diverse Pollinator Garden. Photo by Anthony Wright for Virginia Tech.

Creating a pollinator paradise

Trying to attract more pollinators to your garden? Margaret Couvillon, assistant professor in the Department of Entomology, and her former graduate student Micki Palmersheim ’21, have recommendations based on two years of research that examined what combination of plants attract and feed the most – and most diverse – insect pollinators.

Their findings? For a tempting bee garden, incorporate lots of Black- and Brown- eyed Susans, purple coneflowers, Joe-Pye weeds, Helen’s flowers, and sedum. For a diverse pollinator garden, try purple coneflower, Helen’s flower, dwarf goldenrod, zinnias, yarrow, and catamint. Read more.