Federal dollars will be heading to Cornell University to help protect New York’s potato farms from invasive species.
Scientists at Cornell’s nematode facility are working to control the potential devastation caused by the golden nematode and pale cyst nematode to the potato industry in New York and nationwide. It’s a quarantine pest that spreads by moving through the soil, potentially spreading from one field to the next.
Friday, U.S. senator Chuck Schumer announced $400,000 in federal funding for new equipment at the facility. That money follows state funding secured for facility renovations.
“If New York didn’t deal with this pest, you would not see a potato exported from any state to another country,” says Gary Maynay, a Steuben County potato grower. “And you wouldn’t see the sod [and] turf. You wouldn’t see soybeans because when you harvest soybeans, the combine header is really slow to the ground and you pick up a certain amount of dirt.”
Potato farming is a $65 million industry in New York, with more than 1,200 operating farms.
Source: Spectrum News