News Stories - Page 6

As summer heats up, Georgians tend to worry about how hot it’s going to be and how dry. To properly care for the plants in our landscapes and gardens this Smart Irrigation Month, residents need to pay a little extra attention to temperatures and rainfall in order to supplement water when needed.

In the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, students are exposed to new ideas, concepts and methods in classrooms and labs every day. The Ratcliffe Scholars Program, part of the college’s experiential learning programming, supports undergraduate students as they deepen their understanding of their chosen fields through internships, study abroad programs and other immersive learning experiences.

UGArden, UGA's student-run community farm, welcomes Ty Brooks as its new farm director. An Athens native, Brooks is a Double Dawg with a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology and a master’s degree in agricultural and environmental education. During his time as a graduate student, Brooks also pursued his certificate in organic agriculture, which brought him to UGArden for the first time.

For Jennifer Jo Thompson, finding solutions to meet the increasing global demands for healthy, affordable and accessible food requires an un-siloed approach in higher education and leadership. Through a collaborative project funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Higher Education Challenge Grant, Thompson is leading UGA’s Sustainable Food Systems Initiative in a collaborative project with the Food Studies Program at Spelman College.

Consumers hold high standards for fresh food, which farmers aim to meet, but hot summer temperatures and long-haul deliveries can degrade quality even before produce makes it into stores. In a collaborative study, Angelos Deltsidis, assistant professor of horticulture in the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, teamed up with UGA Cooperative Extension agents to improve upon a decades-old method of precooling to increase efficiency and reduce postharvest losses along the value chain.

Spray drones with pinpoint accuracy, produce-picking robots, autonomous systems to monitor broiler chicken health, and artificial intelligence to predict yield before the buds have faded from the trees — these are some of the solutions integrative precision agriculture promises an industry that is embracing the power of technology to address both age-old and emerging challenges.