Representatives from National Corn Growers Association, National Cotton Council of America, the Peanut Foundation, the research arm of the American Peanut Council, and the Almond Board of California met with representatives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service this week in Washington, D.C., to seek an increase in funding and research to eliminate aflatoxin. The groups discussed the future of Multi-crop Pre-harvest Elimination Research and to provide ARS with industry perspective on research priorities.
The pre-harvest elimination research led to the development of competitive atoxigenic fungus strains that crowd out the toxin-producing fungus in field environments. This has led to commercialized products in cotton and peanuts and is being studied in corn, almonds and other tree nuts. Additionally, collaborative ARS and nationwide university research through this program is breeding research designed to move naturally resistant germplasm into commercially acceptable corn hybrids.
Source: Feedstuffs