Progress 10/01/17 to 09/30/21
Outputs
Target Audience:This project was initiated and implemented with an overall goal to help our stakeholders, primarily limited resources and small and minority farmers, find alternate ways to increase their productivity and profitability and the overall economic status. Also, this project was targeted to and the project team worked closely with agricultural educators and professionals, agricultural industry representatives, county extension agents, scientists, graduate and undergraduate students in agriculture and food related systems, K-12 students, summer research apprentice program high school student interns, policy makers, and general public who has an interest in agriculture and food related systems for a bigger and broader impact through policy making and education and training of future generation professionals and scientists. Prior to COVID-19 pandemic, we conducted ginger workshops for limited resources farmers, small farmers, and minority farmers strategically covering the whole state of North Carolina (east, middle and west parts of the state in Bladen, Caswell, Watauga and Martin Counties), with an average of about 25 participating farmers per workshop. This project also made a significant global impact on agriculture and food systems. Per invitation in 2019, the project team conducted two ginger workshops in Belize, one ginger workshop for the Belize Ministry of Agriculture, University of Belize and its Cooperative Extension personnel with more than 50 people attending, and another ginger workshop specifically for farmers at the San Antonio (Belize) Farm Cooperative with more than 80 farmers attending. Like all aspects of the society impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, for the 2020 and 2021 growing seasons, some project's planned critical in-person activities that would reach much larger audience such as small farm week, small farm field day, FFA events, field trips, and workshops were cancelled. We typically use such platforms to deliver science-based knowledge and protocol development information to students and general public. The PI of this project served as the founding superintendent since 2006 and hosted the annual NC FFA event and shared our overall research projects specifically emphasizing this particular project with a typical of more than 100 students, agricultural science teachers, and parents. Research findings were shared with scientists in the science community at regional and national horticulture conferences, and were also disseminated directly to farmers and general public through extension publications and presentations via outreach activities. Numerous presentations on project findings were made at various scientific and outreach showcasing and demonstration events. Graduate and undergraduate students gained direct knowledge and experience through field trips and demonstrations, and active involvement in project implementation. Students engaged in this project include one doctoral student, three Master's students and twelve different undergraduate students. In addition, this project provided experiential learning opportunities to undergraduate scholars who are interested in ag and food systems. Changes/Problems:The following challenges are beyond our control. COVID-19 pandemic. Facility issues significantly and negatively impacted our research. Technical issue: because of the nature of ginger, a tropical root crop growing underneath the soil, a constant and significant challenge presents itself in sterilizing ginger rhizome buds for establishing sterile in vitro cultures for induction of cold hardiness and "seed" ginger rhizome production. But we managed and overcome the challenge! It took a lot of time and effort for this beginning part alone in establishing the micropropagation process. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Provided training opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students and research technicians at different stages implementing experiments, collecting and analyzing data, and working with collaborative partners. Also, this project served as a training platform and/or opportunity. This project also serves as an education tool, and an outdoor classroom and laboratory for University Farm personnel, field trip and experiential learning opportunity for related classes to help students making connection between theory and real society applications. Overall knowledge and experience enhancement by this project. Through the active involvement, these above mentioned personnel learned and enhanced their understanding of principles and practices in scientific methods (experimental design, data collection and analysis, plant monitoring and visual observation), presentation, and engagement with the stakeholders as demonstrated by greater knowledge and work efficiency. Students involved in the project served as mentors to their peers to help them expand their knowledge and experience in ginger and horticultural crops, season extension, and applied plant biotechnology for greater efficiency in production and profit margin. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Project results and findings and experiences were shared in the science community at regional and national conferences, with county extension agents, and farmers. Hosting visiting farmers for site visits. Sharing project related information and experience with students, agricultural educators, and parents through NC-FFA events. Individual and/or group meetings with stakeholders. Prior COVID-19 dissemination of project findings with interested general public through in-person outreach activities. Workshops. Annual small farm field day. Annual small farm week. Since COVID-19 pandemic, for the 2020 and 2021 growing seasons, virtual platforms were used for dissemination of project findings. Hosting and sharing project results and findings with agricultural educators, students, and parents. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Ginger, a tropical spice crop with significant medical benefits, is produced exclusively in Hawaii that can only meet 20% of the demand. Such situation creates an excellent niche market opportunity for small farmers to grow baby ginger in high tunnel because of its high price of $15-20 per pound. Project goal is to help small farms find alternate ways to increase their profitability by developing an efficient ginger production protocol. The project has the following specific objectives: Develop a micropropagation (in vitro culture) protocol for ginger "seeds" production. Evaluate the cold hardiness of regenerated plantlets and select cold hardy ginger plantlets. Evaluate commercial ginger cultivars and in vitro cold hardy plantlets for high tunnel production. Evaluate the nutraceutical and pharmaceutical composition in baby ginger roots produced from the project. Develop training materials and conduct training for agents and farmers on high tunnel ginger production. We evaluated eight ginger cultivars on plant growth and rhizome yield performances. A micropropagation protocol was developed for two ginger cultivars, and we are testing the micropropagation protocol for all ginger cultivars. Ginger cold hardiness is being induced with promising observations. Micropropagated ginger seedlings are being investigated for their growth and rhizome yield performance. Phytochemical composition analysis is being conducted for ginger leaf and flower samples, and pending rhizome (root) samples upon harvest. Specifically, we accomplished: (1). Tested eight ginger cultivars in a greenhouse and a high tunnel for plant growth and rhizome yield performance; (2). Inducing cold hardiness in a shaker at -8oC (46oF). Two ginger cultivars survived this cold temperature for several months and might lead to cold hardy ginger clones that could grow in temperature of 45-50oF. This cold hardiness study alone potentially could produce intellectual properties; (3). Micropropagated ginger cultivars are being tested for plant growth and rhizome yield performance; (4). Phytochemical composition analysis with leaf and flower samples are being conducted, and phytochemical composition analysis with rhizome samples will be conducted upon harvest; (5). Farmers adopted our findings to grow their own gingers, and grow our micropropagated ginger seedlings after witnessing our research; (6). Our micropropagation has real potential to help solve ginger seed sourcing issues for the mainland states of the U.S. in near future. Impact of this project: Our ginger research has some direct and meaningful impacts on our stakeholders, small and limited resource farmers. Here is a direct impact quote of Plum Granny Farm, a small in Stokes County NC, published in farm's weekly newsletter on September 24, 2021. "Dr. Yang's tissue culture ginger research plants really helped us last year! Due to COVID-19, we faced a serious labor issue like most other small farms in the state. We had very little help, and some of our crops suffered. The seed ginger we ordered was mostly diseased and wouldn't sprout so we eventually dumped it all with a total loss. Because of our collaboration with Dr. Yang, he provided us with some ready-to-go tissue culture ginger seedlings. We planted and harvested from a little over 50 seedlings for teen-baby ginger with only about 3-months growth. Thanks to these plants, we were able to deliver ginger to our PlumFresh subscribers. Based on our observations, we see terrific potential of tissue culture ginger to help provide a reliable source of ginger plants for small farms across the country."
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2021
Citation:
Lashley W. (advisors Yang G. and Gu S., 2021) Comparative Study of Shading and Ginger Cultivars in Greenhouse and High Tunnels, to be officially published in ProQuest via Graduate College.
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Progress 10/01/19 to 09/30/20
Outputs
Target Audience:The overall goal of this project is to help our stakeholders, primarily limited resources and small and minority farmers, find alternate ways to increase their productivity and profitability and the overall economic status. Also, this project is targeted to and the project team has been working with agricultural educators and professionals, agricultural industry representatives, county extension agents, scientists, graduate and undergraduate students in agriculture and food related systems, K-12 students, summer research apprentice program high school student interns, policy makers, and general public who has an interest in agriculture and food related systems for a bigger and broader impact through policy making and education and training of future generation professionals and scientists. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, some planned activities that reach much larger audience such as small farm week, small farm field day, FFA events, field trips, and workshops were cancelled. We typically use such platforms to deliver science-based knowledge and protocol development information to students and general public. The PI of this project served as the superintendent and hosted the annual NC FFA event and shared our overall research projects specifically emphasizing this particular project with a more than 100 students, agriculture teachers, and parents. Research findings were shared with scientists in the science community at regional and national horticulture conferences and were disseminated directly to farmers and general public through extension publications and presentations via outreach activities. Four presentations on this project were made at various scientific outlets (conferences and showcasing events). Graduate and undergraduate students gained direct knowledge and experience through field trips and demonstrations, and active involvement in project implementation. Students engaged in this project include one doctoral student, two Master's students and six different undergraduate students. In addition, this project provided experiential learning opportunities to undergraduate scholars who are interested in ag and food systems Changes/Problems:The following challenges are beyond our control. COVID-19. Facility issues significantly and negatively impacted our research. Technical issue: because of the nature of ginger, a tropical root crop growing underneath the soil, a constant and significant challenge presents itself in sterilizing ginger rhizome buds for establishing sterile in vitro cultures for induction of cold hardiness and "seed" ginger rhizome production. But we managed and overcome the challenge! It took a lot of time and effort for this beginning part alone in establishing the micropropagation process. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Provided training opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students and research technicians at different stages implementing experiments, collecting and analyzing data, and working with collaborative partners. Also, this project served as a training platform and/or opportunity. This project also serves as an education tool, and an outdoor classroom and laboratory for University Farm personnel, field trip and experiential learning opportunity for related classes to help students making connection between theory and real society applications. Overall knowledge and experience enhancement by this project. Through the active involvement, these above mentioned personnel learned and enhanced their understanding of principles and practices in scientific methods (experimental design, data collection and analysis, plant monitoring and visual observation), presentation, and engagement with the stakeholders as demonstrated by greater knowledge and work efficiency. Students involved in the project served as mentors to their peers to help them expand their knowledge and experience in ginger and horticultural crops, season extension, and applied plant biotechnology for greater efficiency in production and profit margin. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Project results and findings and experiences were shared in the science community at regional and national conferences, with county extension agents, and farmers. Hosting visiting farmers for site visits. Sharing project related information and experience with students, agricultural educators, and parents through NC-FFA events. Individual and/or group meetings with stakeholders. Prior COVID-19 dissemination of project findings with interested general public through outreach activities. Hosting and sharing project results and findings with agricultural educators, students, and parents. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Hopefully, COVID-19 will be under control soon. We will continue the activities according to the proposal. Specifically, we plan to do the following: Improving efficiency of the established micropropagation protocol for ginger "seed" rhizome production. Testing more ginger cultivars for micropropagation. Inducing ginger cold hardiness. Evaluating ginger cultivars on plant growth and yield performance in greenhouse and high tunnel settings. Composition analysis for all available ginger cultivars. Training to extension agents and farmers. Training students. Providing experiential learning opportunities for undergraduate students. Sharing project findings and experience in the science community, with county extension agents, and farmers.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
This project was initiated with an overall goal to help our stakeholders, the limited resource, minority and small farmers find alternate means and cash crop to increase their productivity and profitability by developing an efficient ginger propagation and production protocol. In spite of COVID-19 pandemic, and thus limitations of workforce, we have made significant progress on project objectives, specifically as follow: Through diligent efforts, we managed to have all available seed ginger cultivars prepared, cured, and sprouted, and subsequently planted and maintained growth. Maintained and sub-cultured two tissue culture ginger cultivars. Pilot study comparing tissue cultured ginger with traditionally seed-sprouted ginger. Composition analysis from leaf, flower, and rhizome samples. Training and collaboratively working with county extension agents and farmers. Graduate student training as a part of overall graduate study. Undergraduate student engagement for experiential learning experience. Impact: Our collaborating farmers witnessed our research progress, and have adopted our techniques and protocols. Because of the challenges imposed by COVID-19 pandemic, specifically short of labor, our collaborating farmers were unable to handle and pre-sprout their traditional seed ginger. With relatively less efforts, they were able to plant our tissue cultured ginger plants on their farm and produce decent and comparable marketable yield, and thus provided them with additional income with baby ginger produced from such tissue cultured ginger plants. The collaborating farmers indicated that our tissue cultured ginger plants produced about 2-3 LBs baby ginger per plant. The average price for baby ginger for 2020 is about $17-18 per pound. The collaborating farmers also reaffirmed that tissue culture would help solve seed ginger sourcing issue for the mainland states of the U.S that is currently exclusively dependent on the state of Hawaii. This is a significant impact of any research project. Therefore, our project potentially has a significant economic impact, as we can mass produce ginger seedlings within a short period of time.
Publications
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Yang G, JC Robinson, S Gu, ZC Lu, W Lashley and B Holms. 2020. Comparative Study of Ginger Mineral Nutrient Contents. HortScience 55(9) S425.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Yang G, and S Gu. NCA&T Ginger Research: Production, Micropropagation, Shading, and Cultivar Evaluations, Composition Profiling, and Comparative Studies between tissue culture and traditional seed sprouted gingers. 2020 Small farm Week Educational Forum, February 2020.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Yang G, and S Gu. Feed The Future: Ginger Research at North Carolina A&T State University. RTI Feed the Future Initiative, RTI International at RTP, October 2019.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Lashley W, G Yang, and S Gu. Comparative study of shade conditions and cultivars for ginger production in greenhouse and high tunnel settings. CAES 2019 Students Showcasing of Excellence
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Progress 10/01/18 to 09/30/19
Outputs
Target Audience:This project was initiated with the ultimatum goal to help our stakeholders finding a way to increase their productivity and economic status. Our stakeholders are primarily limited resources farmers, small farmers, and minority farmers. In addition, our project is also targeted to and working with agricultural educators and professionals, agricultural industry representatives, cooperative extension agents, scientists, students at graduate and undergraduate levels in agriculture and food systems, such as horticulture, agronomy and crop sciences, agricultural education and economics, K-12 students, summer high school student interns, policy makers, and general public who has an interest in agriculture and food systems for a bigger and broader impact through policy making and education and training of future generation professionals and scientists. For this reporting period, we conducted four workshops for limited resources farmers, small farmers, and minority farmers strategically covering the whole state of North Carolina (east, middle and west parts of the state in Bladen, Caswell, Watauga and Martin Counties), with an average 25 participating farmers per workshop. Our project also made a significant global impact on agriculture and food systems. Per invitation, we conducted two workshops in Belize, one for the Belize Ministry of Agriculture, University of Belize and its Cooperative Extension personnel with about 50 people attending, and another one for farmers at the San Antonio (Belize) Farm Cooperative with about 80 farmers attending. Science-based knowledge and protocol development information were delivered to students at various levels and general public through field trips, workshops, and annual small farm field day, FFA events, and/or personal visits and communications. The PI of this project served as the superintendent and hosted a NC FFA event and shared our overall research projects specifically emphasizing this particular project with about 115 participating students, agriculture teachers, and parents. Research findings were shared with scientists in the science community at regional and national horticulture conferences, and were also disseminated directly to farmers and general public through extension publications and presentations at field days and/or other outreach activities. We made about 16 presentations at various scientific outlets (conferences and showcasing events). Our project was one of the demonstration sites for our annual Small Farm Field Day that had reached about 450 farmers (June 2019). Graduate and undergraduate students gained direct knowledge and experience through field trips and demonstrations, and active involvement in project implementation. We engaged 1 doctoral student, 2 Master's students and 6 different undergraduate students in the project. This project also provided experiential learning opportunities to undergraduate scholars who have deep interest in agriculture and food systems. For this reporting period, we offered the experiential learning opportunity to 12 undergraduate students at different stages of the project. Changes/Problems:During the second year of project implementation, we continue to experience these following challenges. Because of the nature (a tropical root crop growing underneath the soil) of ginger, a constant and significant challenge presents itself in sterilizing ginger rhizome buds for establishing sterile in vitro cultures for induction of cold hardiness and "seed" ginger rhizome production. However, we managed and overcame the challenge! It took a lot of time and effort for this beginning part alone in establishing the micropropagation process. Facility issues are another significant obstacle that is beyond our control, which significantly and negatively affect our research. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Provided training opportunities at different stages implementing experiments, collecting and analyzing data, and working with collaborative partners. One doctoral student. Two MS graduate students. Six undergraduate students. One summer RAP student from a high school. Two research technicians. The project served as a training platform and/or opportunity. University Farm personnel. Field trip and experiential learning opportunity for related classes to help students making connection between theory and real society applications. Therefore, this project also serves as an education tool, and an outdoor classroom and laboratory. Overall knowledge and experience enhancement by this project. Through the active involvement, these above mentioned personnel learned and enhanced their understanding of principles and practices in scientific methods (experimental design, data collection and analysis, plant monitoring and visual observation), presentation, and engagement with the stakeholders as demonstrated by greater knowledge and work efficiency. Students involved in the project served as mentors to their peers to help them expand their knowledge and experience in ginger and horticultural crops, season extension, and applied plant biotechnology for greater efficiency in production and profit margin. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Presenting project results and significant findings and experiences in the science community at regional and national conferences, with county extension agents, and farmers through telephone, on-site visits, field days, state training events, workshops, and other events. Sharing project related information and experience with students, agricultural educators, and parents through NC-FFA events. Sharing the results with stakeholders through one on one and/or group meetings and presentations. Disseminating project findings with interested population through the college's annual small farm field day for a quick and broader information sharing. This project has been a demonstration site during the annual small field days. The projects results and experiences are shared with agricultural educators, students (middle, high school, early colleges/or STEM colleges), and parents. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Continue the activities planned in the proposal to meet the research goal and objective targets. Specifically, we plan to do the following: Improving efficiency of the established micropropagation protocol for ginger "seed" rhizome production. Testing more ginger cultivars for micropropagation. Inducing ginger cold hardiness. Evaluating ginger cultivars on plant growth and yield performance in a greenhouse and under different shade levels in a high tunnel. Ginger composition analysis for all tested ginger cultivars. Training to cooperative extension agents and farmers. Training students at different levels (PhD, MS, undergraduate, RAP). Providing experiential learning opportunities for interested undergraduate students. Presenting project results and significant findings in the science community, with county extension agents, and farmers.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
This is the second year of project implementation. We have made significant progress on project objectives, specifically as follow: Through diligent efforts, all necessary equipment was acquired and delivered into the designated lab and installed for ginger cold hardiness evaluation and ginger leaf, stem, flower, and rhizome sample preparation for composition analysis. Evaluating and selecting appropriate explant materials for establishment of ginger Micropropagation. Established a micropropagation protocol for two ginger cultivars using rhizome axillary bud as explant material. Studied seven ginger cultivars in a greenhouse and under various shade conditions in a high tunnel. Investigated comparatively micropropgated ginger with traditionally seed-sprouted ginger for two ginger cultivars. Conducted ginger composition analysis from leaf, flower, and rhizome samples for all tested ginger cultivars. Provided training to cooperative extension agents and farmers through annual small farm field day and workshops at four different counties in North Carolina. Provided training to graduate students. This is a part of their thesis research. Provided experiential learning opportunities to undergraduate students. Ginger is a root crop growing underneath the soil, thus naturally presenting a significant challenge in sterilizing ginger rhizome buds for establishing sterile in vitro cultures. After diligent efforts, we overcome this significant technical obstacle and developed a process that enabled us to effectively sterilize ginger rhizome buds to be used as explant materials for establishing sterile in vitro cultures. Impact: This project was established with a goal to help limited resource farmers, minority farmers, and small farmers in North Carolina to find alternate ways and niche market cash crop to increase their productivity and profitability by developing an efficient propagation and production protocol for ginger, a tropical plant. Our results indicated that there were significant performance differences among ginger cultivars in greenhouse or under different shade conditions in a high tunnel, in term of ginger plant growth and rhizome yield. Our micropropaged ginger plants did very well and produced comparable or better yield than the traditionally seed-sprouted ginger plants grown in the same high tunnel with exactly the same management and maintenance. Our micropropagated ginger plants produced up to 3 LBs baby ginger per plant. The average price for baby ginger is $15-20 per pound. Therefore, our project potentially has a significant economic impact, as we can mass produce ginger seedlings within a short period of time. Our collaborating farmers also tested our micropropagated ginger plants in their own farm and obtained very similar yield results to our research. The collaborating farmers adopted our production protocols and techniques for their production of baby and mature gingers, requested for more micropropagated ginger plants, because they witnessed our ginger plant performance (growth and yield) with scientific data. We expect more farmers adopting our production protocols and techniques developed by this project, because our collaborating farmers conducts couple of workshops each year on baby ginger production. Based on our own and our collaborating farmers' studies, micropropagation techniques have a great potential to help resolve the ginger seed sourcing issue that is currently exclusively dependent on the state of Hawaii.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Yang G, Z Lu, S Gu, and JC Robinson. In Vitro Performance Evaluation of Two Ginger Cultivars. American Society for Horticultural Sciences (ASHS) Annual Conference Program, July 21-25, 2019, Las Vegas, Nevada
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Gu S, J Parker, and G Yang. Agrishop Academy helps small farmers in tobacco-driven counties of North Carolina transition to heirloom tomatoes and baby ginger production. American Society for Horticultural Sciences (ASHS) Annual Conference Program, July 21-25, 2019, Las Vegas, Nevada
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Yang G, and S Gu. Ginger Production and NCA&T Ginger Research: Micropropagation, Shading, and Cultivar Evaluations. Farm Cooperative, Belize, June 18, 2019.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Yang G, and S Gu. Ginger Production and NCA&T Ginger Research: Micropropagation, Shading, and Cultivar Evaluations. University of Belize, Cooperative Extension Services, Balize Department of Agriculture, at the University of Belize, June 19, 2019.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Yang G, S Gu, ZC Lu*, J Robinson, and J Kimes. Evaluating Ginger Cultivars Grown Under Shading Treatments in High Tunnel. 2019 ARD Research Symposium, Jacksonville, FL, March 30 April 3, 2019.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Lashley W, G Yang, and S Gu. Comparative study of shade conditions and cultivars for ginger production in greenhouse and high tunnel settings. CAES 2019 Students Showcasing of Excellence, September 4, 2019.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Yang G, and S Gu. Feed The Future: Ginger Research at North Carolina A&T State University. RTI Feed the Future Initiative, RTI International at RTP, September 30, 2019.
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Progress 10/01/17 to 09/30/18
Outputs
Target Audience:Small scale farmers, minority farmers, agricultural educators and professionals, agricultural industry representatives, cooperative extension agents, scientists, students at graduate and undergraduate levels in agriculture and food systems, such as horticulture, agronomy and crop sciences, agricultural education and economics, K-12 students, summer high school student interns, policy makers, and general public who has an interest in agriculture. Science-based knowledge and protocol development information were delivered to students at various levels and public through field trips, workshop, and annual field days, FFA events, and/or personal visits and communications. Research findings have been shared with scientists in the science community at regional and national horticulture conferences, and were disseminated directly to farmers and public through extension publications and presentations at field days and/or other outreach activities. Graduate and undergraduate students gained direct knowledge and experience through field trips and demonstrations, and active involvement in project implementation. This project also provided experiential learning opportunities directly to seven horticulture scholars through active involvement in the project at different stages. Changes/Problems:During the first year of project implementation, we experienced the following challenges. Due to the nature of ginger, a tropical root crop growing underneath the soil, there is a significant challenge in sterilizing ginger rhizome buds for establishing sterile in vitro cultures for induction of cold hardiness and "seed" ginger rhizome production. But we will overcome the challenge! It will just take some time and effort. Vandalism and/or theft. Motion cameras were installed. Facility issues thatwere being taken care off. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We provided training opportunities to one doctoral student, two MS graduate students, seven undergraduate students, one summer research apprentice program (RAP) student from a high school and two research technicians by actively involving them in the project at different stages implementing experiments, collecting and analyzing data, and working with collaborative partners. We also used this project as a training platform and/or opportunity for other farm personnel, and as a field trip and experiential learning opportunity for related classes to help students making connection between theory and real society applications. Therefore, this project also serves as an education tool, and an outdoor classroom and laboratory. Through the active involvement, these personnel learned and enhanced their understanding of principles and practices in scientific methods (experimental design, data collection and analysis, plant monitoring and visual observation), presentation, and engagement with the stakeholders as demonstrated by greater knowledge and work efficiency. Also, students involved in the project served as mentors to their peers to help them expand their knowledge and experience in ginger and horticultural crops, season extension, and applied plant biotechnology for greater efficiency in production and profit margin. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Hosting and/or visiting with farmers or through other communication means such as e-mail and phone calls on applications of techniques and protocols produced by the project. Communicating and sharing research findings with peer scientists in the science community through scientific presentations at regional and national conferences, with county extension agents, and farmers through telephone, on-site visits, field days, state training events and other events. Presenting related information and knowledge through Future Farmers of America (FFA) events. One on one and/or group presentations and sharing with stakeholders and interested general public through the annual small farm field day. Hosting high school agricultural educators and/or students. Hosting students from early colleges and/or STEM colleges. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Continue the activities planned in the proposal to meet the research goal and objective targets. Specifically, we plan to do the following: Improve efficiency of the established micropropagation protocol for ginger "seed" rhizome production. Conduct experiments to induce ginger cold hardiness. Continue to evaluate ginger cultivars on plant growth and yield performance in a greenhouse and under different shade levels in a high tunnel. Provide training to cooperative extension agents and farmers. Train students at different levels (PhD, MS, undergraduate, RAP). Sharing research findings with peer scientists in the science community, with county extension agents, and farmers.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In this first year significant progress has been achieved on all project objectives. Specifically, we purchased and installed the needed equipment for cold hardiness testing, established a micropropagation protocol for ginger "seed" rhizome production, evaluated five different ginger cultivars in a greenhouse and under various shade conditions in a high tunnel, and provided training to cooperative extension agents and farmers through field days and workshops. Due to the nature of ginger, a root crop growing underneath the soil, there has been a significant challenge in sterilizing ginger rhizome buds for establishing sterile in vitro cultures. After diligent efforts, we overcome this significant technical obstacle and developed a process that enabled us to effectively sterilize ginger rhizome buds to be used as explant materials for establishing sterile in vitro cultures. In addition, we provided training to graduate and undergraduate students through experiential learning opportunities by actively engaging students in the project. Impact: This project was initiated to help small-scale farmers in North Carolina to find alternate ways to increase their productivity and profitability by developing an efficient propagation and production protocol for ginger, a tropical plant. Our results indicated that there were significant performance differences among ginger cultivars in greenhouse or under different shade conditions in a high tunnel, in term of ginger plant growth and rhizome yield (baby and mature gingers). Our collaborating farmers adopted our production protocols and techniques for their production of baby and mature gingers, because they witnessed our ginger plant performance (growth and yield) with scientific data. We expect more farmers adopting production protocols and techniques developed by this project, because our collaborating farmers provide couple of workshops each year on baby ginger production.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Yang G, S Gu, C Lu, J Robinson, and J Kimes. Evaluation of ginger cultivars in a greenhouse. Presented at the American Society for Horticultural Sciences (ASHS) Annual Conference, Washington DC, July 30 August 3, 2018.
- Type:
Other
Status:
Other
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Yang G, S Gu, C Lu, J Kimes, J Robinson, and J Parker. Ginger: How to Grow, Add Value & Make it Profitable. Presented and published at The 2018 Small Farms Field Day, June 14, 2018, p11-12.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Awaiting Publication
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Yang G, S Gu, C Lu, J Robinson, J Kimes, and W Lashley. Ginger growth affected by shading treatments in high tunnel. Presented at Southern Region American Society for Horticultural Sciences (SR-ASHS) Annual Conference, Jacksonville FL, February 2-4, 2018. Abstract #31, p12. HortScience 53(9) 2018 (in press).
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Awaiting Publication
Year Published:
2018
Citation:
Robinson J, G Yang, S Gu, C Lu, J Kimes, and B Holmes. Nutrient uptake and growth analysis of Actaea racemosa L. under shade conditions in a greenhouse. Presented at Southern Region American Society for Horticultural Sciences (SR-ASHS) Annual Conference, Jacksonville FL, February 2-4, 2018. Abstract #56, p14. HortScience 53(9) 2018
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