Location: Office of The Director
Project Number: 2034-21000-013-019-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2025
End Date: Aug 31, 2030
Objective:
1) Provide plant cuttings of Opuntia germplasm for field trials in Parlier, plus three additional field sites in Arizona, Texas, and Florida.
2) Plant, maintain and harvest a 5- year field trial as one site of a multisite trial.
3) Assist in additional data collection/observations related to ecosystem services, soil health, and carbon sequestration in collaboration with other Co-Principal Investigators.
Approach:
The National Arid Land Plant Genetic Resources Unit in Davis, California, maintains plant material of diverse Opuntia germplasm, including accessions tested in prior field trials with collaborators at the University of Nevada at Reno and has determined them to be promising for biofuel production. Plants from the collection as well as nursery plants left over from prior trials will be used to provide planting material for the proposed 5-year multisite field trial. In addition, Parlier will serve as a site of the field trial, and NALPGRU staff will be responsible for planting, maintenance, data collection, and harvest. The Opuntia field collection orchard will be available to host stakeholder field events and film educational outreach videos. NALPGRU staff will manage resulting germplasm characterization data in the GRIN-Global database.