Graduate student awarded Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education grant

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Program selected Hanareia Ehau-Taumaunu, a graduate student in the Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, as a recipient for the 2019 Graduate Student Research Grant Award. Ehau-Taumaunu is one of eight graduate students at Penn State to receive the award amongst the 34 approved proposals totaling $495,917.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Northeast SARE offers competitive grants and education in sustainable agriculture. Funded projects address a wide range of issues that explore sustainable agriculture themes of good stewardship, profitability, and quality of life for farmers and farming communities.

Ehau-Taumaunu's proposal titled, "Development of Microbial Communities to Suppress Tomato Foliar Pathogens," will look to test the feasibility of different techniques for transferring foliar microbial communities that are effective at suppressing either bacterial spot or speck of tomato. This project will provide a short-term, and potentially long-term, method for designing a more sustainable system for protecting crops from diseases.

Ehau-Taumaunu is advised by Kevin Hockett, assistant professor of microbial ecology in the Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology.

For more information about Ehau-Taumaunu's project, visit projects.sare.org.