The Citrus Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) board of directors acted on proposed research projects during its Oct. 26 meeting.
“The board meeting was the culmination of the 2021 request for proposals (RFP) process,” CRDF Chief Operating Officer Rick Dantzler reported. “Of the 12 proposals considered, the board approved funding five as presented and requested revised budgets on two more. Three of the others involved plant breeding, so the board deferred final consideration of them until it receives the findings of a review panel we are assembling to advise us because we must get this right. The board chose not to fund the last two.”
According to Dantzler, it is highly unlikely that CRDF’s consideration of research funding for this fiscal year is over. “I suspect that the board will use a process available to us to consider projects ‘off-cycle,’ meaning they will be considered apart from the RFP,” he explained. “In fact, it is entirely possible that projects not funded could find their way into an off-cycle project because sometimes projects are scientifically sound but are simply too expensive, or the scientist is trying to do too much. Considering them off-cycle allows CRDF staff to tailor their project to the concerns expressed during the RFP process.”
The five projects CRDF funded involve reducing drop, speeding up the breeding process, fighting sting nematode, finalizing work on optimal methods of tree propagation, and a unique way of inhibiting CLas. (CLas is Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus, the main causative agent of huanglongbing or HLB.)
“Still to come are projects involving greasy spot or greasy green and more on drop,” added Dantzler. “I also believe that CRDF will be engaged in the CTV vectoring process and more work on peptides when the data on peptide success begins to come in.”
Source: Citrus Research and Development Foundation
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