Potato Post-harvest Physiology and Quality
Research priorities: 1) Improving storage, processing, and nutritional quality, 2) Evaluate storage and postharvest processing quality of promising new potato varieties of US public breeding programs, 3) Identification of mechanisms regulating wound healing processes and development of
post-harvest management strategies, 4) Determine regulatory mechanisms for tuber dormancy; development of efficient and safe management strategies to reduce sprouting.
Pulse Crop Health Initiative and Pulse Crop Quality
Research priorities: 1) Pulse crop quality - part of USDA Pulse Quality Network, servicing PULSE producers, breeders, and researchers, 2) Pulse crop research - development of novel pulse food products that can serve as meat/flour alternatives, and 3) PCHI funds - academic, private, and government institutions to
improve human health, and pulse functionality and sustainability.
Wheat and Oat Quality
Research priorities: 1) Develop improved and innovative evaluation tools to identify superior quality germplasm in hard spring wheat, durum, and oat, 2) Improve near-infrared and mid-infrared prediction models for rapid evaluation of oat quality traits, 3) Develop new and improved tests for measuring wheat and flour end-use quality, and 4) Evaluate new
commercial wheat cultivars for our partners has led to release of >40 new spring wheat and 10 durum cultivars.
Mission
To improve postharvest quality of potatoes, wheat and oat, and pulse crops through research on variety development, postharvest physiology, and processing quality.