The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) announces a new round of research grants to help farmers manage aflatoxin issues. Letters of intent from principal investigators, co-principal investigators, and collaborators not exceeding the $75,000 per year limit will be accepted by AMCOE until October 30, 2020. For more information about the review process, evaluation criteria and program, click here.
The Aflatoxin Mitigation Center of Excellence Research Program will again offer researcher grants for projects focused on solving profit-robbing aflatoxin issues for farmers. These grants, which will be awarded to researchers focusing on six priority areas, were designed by southern corn checkoff boards to bring a unified approach to funding research projects across the region and will thus favor research teams that include members from multiple states.
“We have made significant progress in understanding and managing Aflatoxin and other mycotoxins in recent years through the efforts of the Aflatoxin Mitigation Center for Excellence,” said AMCOE Committee Chair Charles Ring, a corn grower in Texas. “NCGA, working with southern state grower associations including Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Mississippi and North Carolina, developed AMCOE to bring a unified and efficient approach to aflatoxin research that yields improved tools and better results.”
Projects funded for 2021 should focus on one of these six priority areas: amelioration, best-management, biological controls, breeding, testing and transgenic.
While corn farmers in southern states experience aflatoxin challenges every year, these challenges may present themselves in any corn region of the United States when the crop comes under stress. Thus, the benefits of such research, particularly as outlined in the six priority areas, are truly national in scope. This way, proposals will be considered regardless of the parties’ geographic region. Any state wishing to provide additional funding for AMCOE is encouraged to do so.
