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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

NIFA supports research, educational, and extension efforts in a wide range of scientific fields related to agricultural and behavioral sciences.

The lifecycle of grants and cooperative agreements consists of four phases: Pre-Award, Award, Post-Award, and Close Out.

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture is committed to serving its stakeholders, Congress, and the public by using new technologies to advance greater openness.

The Data Gateway enables users to find funding data, metrics, and information about research, education, and extension projects that have received grant awards from NIFA.

This website houses a large volume of supporting materials. In this section, you can search the wide range of documents, videos, and other resources.

This webinar will be a panel discussion of best practices and lessons learned from NIFA staff and select State Animal Health Officials for how veterinary shortage situation areas are identified. Additionally, NIFA staff will discuss how the nominations are used by both applicants and awardees of the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP) and the Veterinary Services Grant Program (VSGP).

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture provides leadership and funding for programs that advance agriculture-related sciences.

This story originally appeared in ARD Updates and is reprinted here with permission.

The daylily is a member of the Hemerocallis species and is cultivated in every state and most, if not all, regions of the world. Despite its rich environmental, nutritional, medicinal and research history, daylily’s economies evolve mainly around the beauty of its flowers. The diversity and complexity of its colors are unparalleled across ornamental crops. With support from NIFA, Langston University in Oklahoma has developed the sole and largest genetic stock of more than 250 daylily cultivars, most of which are semi-evergreen.

The floral beauty that is the cornerstone of the daylily’s economies only lasts 24 hours because programmed death genes are prone to precisely kill the flower at the end of this period, under standard conditions. To meet the increasing market demand, cell and tissue culture techniques are increasingly used for commercial purposes in a daylily.

Many farmers, enthusiasts and some breeders have complained that the phenotypes of alleged tissue culture-produced plants differ from the parents. This has infused increasing skepticism toward tissue culture technologies, which is greatly impeding the improvement of this crop using modern technologies. Most protocols for daylily micropropagation are difficult to reproduce, which limits its broad commercial and research applications.

The plan is to implement adequate measures to address those challenges more efficiently, amongst which include:

The Langston University School of Agriculture and Applied Sciences, through its Evans-Allen Grant program funded by USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, is conducting research to address the challenges in three phases:

Most Oklahoma farmers who have attended Dr. Matand’s presentations on daylily research through Langston’s Extension Service activities have expressed hope and greater interest in the crop, especially after hearing about the possibility of future development of cultivars with flowers’ longer life span.

For more information, contact Dr. Kanyand Matand at kmatand@langston.edu.

Top photo: Daylily cultivar Mels Folly, courtesy of Langston University.

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE