A partnership between Alcorn State University (ASU) and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) brings cutting-edge crop disease detection technologies for family farmers in Mississippi and Arkansas.
The “Education and Application of Portable Crop Disease Detection Technologies to Improve Biosecurity for Underserved Family Farms in Mississippi and Arkansas” project is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA).
It is led by Dr. Emran Ali, a horticulture specialist with the ASU Extension Program, and Dr. Henry English, director of the Small Farm Program at UAPB.
On April 28, UAPB hosted a small farmer conference in Pine Bluff, where Dr. Ali delivered a presentation on modern plant disease management strategies and demonstrated how portable detection devices can revolutionize farm diagnostics.
The session included a hands-on workshop, allowing farmers to use the tools themselves—scanning plants and interpreting real-time data that could help save their crops from disease-related losses.
Source : alcorn.edu