TDA RESEARCH, INC. — Department of Agriculture SBIR Phase I: 8.2

Description

Floriculture and nursery crops are one of the highest value-per-acre industries in the farm sector. Like food crops, ornamental crops are infected by many fungal and bacterial pathogens, which result in substantial yield and quality losses. The environmental horticulture industry is one of the key subsectors of the U.S. agricultural economy, providing an estimated 48,883 permanent and temporary jobs and $27.14 billion in revenue. As part of this industry, floriculture and nursery crops are grown in more than 30 states over a combined 57,500 acres of greenhouses and open space. To control diseases, growers predominantly use chemical fungicides. In 2009, 870 thousand pounds of fungicides (22.4% of the total pesticides used) were applied to floriculture and nursery crops. The potential adverse impacts of these chemicals on the environment and the emergence of fungicide-resistant pathogen strains have put pesticides under increased public scrutiny. This proposal addresses stakeholder needs by developing a new, environmentally friendly disease control strategy.In this effort, TDA Research, Inc. (TDA) will develop an effective antimicrobial solution that does not need special on-site spray or expensive generation equipment. The solution is sprayed onto plants and surfaces to destroy topical plant pathogens without causing harm to the plants. Unlike traditional topical antimicrobials that have a very high starting dose, TDA's technology provides a generic, antimicrobial that works at a reduced but still effective concentration that continues to be effective over an extended period of time.During this Phase I effort, TDA and its partners will demonstrate that this technology can neutralize plant pathogens on leaf surfaces through tests at established plant pathogen research facilities. In addition to this critical efficacy data, plant safety studies will be performed on relevant plant species to show that the effective dose level is far below the level that impacts the plants. The combination of these two data sets will demonstrate the proof of concept for use in the ornamental horticulture industry.