Location: Innovative Fruit Production, Improvement, and Protection
Project Number: 8080-21000-032-027-R
Project Type: Reimbursable Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Mar 1, 2020
End Date: Sep 30, 2023
Objective:
The objective for this project is to develop an autonomous platform for small growers to deploy the UV-C light technology for pest management and for use on field grown strawberries.
Approach:
ARS will compare disease and pest control achieved with synthetic pesticides, UV-C technology alone or in combination with pesticide applications on disease-tolerant and -susceptible varieties. Successful deployment of the UV-C light technology using a robot will make commercialization possible and contribute to more sustainable strawberry production.
