Synergist Inc

**AWARDS ISSUED PRIOR TO JANUARY 20, 2025, WERE FUNDED UNDER PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATIONS AND MAY NOT REFLECT THE PRIORITIES AND POLICIES OF THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION.** THE OCTOBER 2020 DISCOVERY OF COFFEE LEAF RUST (CLR), HEMILEIA VASTATRIX, ON BOTH MAUI AND HAWAII ISLANDS BROUGHT THE MOST DEVASTATING COFFEE DISEASE IN THE WORLD TO THE STATE. PRESENT IN PUERTO RICO SINCE 1989, THE FUNGUS ATTACKS THE LEAVES OF COFFEE TREES CAUSING SEVERE DEFOLIATION, YIELD LOSSES OF 70% OR GREATER, AND POSSIBLE TREE DEATH. THE DISEASE IS ESPECIALLY CHALLENGING TO CONTROL, AND IS A SIGNIFICANT THREAT TO THE 1,470 GROWERS IN HAWAII AND THE 2,300 PUERTO RICAN GROWERS. COFFEE IS RANKED AS A TOP COMMODITY IN IN BOTH REGIONS, BUT INDIVIDUAL FARMS ARE SMALL AND CLASSIFY AS SOCIALLY DISADVANTAGED. IN KONA ALONE, THERE ARE HUNDREDS OF COFFEE FARMS THAT CONTRIBUTE NOT ONLY TO THE ECONOMIC VIABILITY OF HAWAII, BUT TO THE PRESERVATION OF A CULTURAL HERITAGE DATING BACK 150 YEARS. HAWAII COFFEE HAS DOWNSTREAM BENEFITS OF VALUE-ADDED ROASTING, FARM JOBS, ECOTOURISM, AND ANCILLARY INDUSTRIES CALCULATED AT OVER $500 MILLION ANNUALLY. DATA FOR PUERTO RICO IS NOT RELIABLE POST-HURRICANE MARIA, BUT SIMILAR TO HAWAII, THE MAJORITY OF GROWERS ARE SOCIALLY DISADVANTAGED GROWERS, AND PROVIDE A STRONG ECONOMIC BENEFIT TO THEIR COMMUNITIES.RESEARCH FROM THIS GRANT WILL PROVIDE QUANTIFIABLE BENEFITS TO THE US COFFEE INDUSTRY AND BEYOND, INCLUDING A WIDE RANGE OF AGRONOMIC, ECONOMIC, AND GENOMIC ASSISTANCE. BENEFITS INCLUDE FIELD TRIALS OF NEW RUST-RESISTANT COFFEE TREE VARIETIES THAT MEET THE EXACTING STANDARDS OF THE HIGH-VALUE HAWAII INDUSTRY AND MAY INCREASE THE QUALITY OF COFFEE ORIGINATING FROM PUERTO RICO, THUS RAISING THE STANDARD OF LIVING FOR GROWERS.UNTIL THE NEW VARIETIES ARE READY FOR PROPAGATION, FIELD RESEARCH AND EXTENSION WILL PROVIDE IMMEDIATE SOLUTIONS TO MAINTAIN THE TREE HEALTH OF CURRENT, SUSCEPTIBLE VARIETIES.ECONOMIC ANALYSES WILL PROVIDE A DEEP LOOK AT US-GROWN COFFEE FROM BOTH A GROWING AND A SELLING PERSPECTIVE; THIS EVALUATION HAS NOT BEEN DONE IN THE MODERN SPECIALTY COFFEE ERA. FINALLY, ANALYSIS OF CLR AND COFFEE GENOMICS WILL PROVIDE A CLOSER LOOK AT A PATHOGEN THAT IS NOT YET UNDERSTOOD ON A GENETIC BASIS AND IDENTIFY THE HOST/PATHOGEN INTERACTION THAT COULD LEAD TO A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF HOW THE DISEASE SPREADS AND METHODS FOR HOW GROWERS CAN CONTROL THE FUNGUS IN THEIR FIELDS.

UPWARD BOUND PROGRAM

TO CONDUCT APPROVED MARKET DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES INTENDED TO FOSTER EXPANDED EXPORTS AND MARKET DIVERSIFICATION BY ENCOURAGING THE DEVELOPMENT, MAINTENANCE, AND EXPANSION OF DIVERSE COMMERCIAL EXPORT MARKETS FOR UNITED STATES AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES AND

HAWAII LAVA: MINORITY BUSINESS REGROWTH FOR AGRICULTURE

TO CONDUCT APPROVED MARKET DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES INTENDED TO FOSTER EXPANDED EXPORTS AND MARKET DIVERSIFICATION BY ENCOURAGING THE DEVELOPMENT, MAINTENANCE, AND EXPANSION OF DIVERSE COMMERCIAL EXPORT MARKETS FOR UNITED STATES AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES AND

COFFEE LEAF RUST (CLR) IS A DEVASTATING FUNGAL PATHOGEN OF COFFEE PLANTS. WHEN INFECTED, COFFEE TREES EXPERIENCE A REDUCTION IN PHOTOSYNTHESIS AND A LOSS OF LEAVES. THESE SYMPTOMS CAN LEAD TO REDUCED COFFEE YIELDS, AN ESTIMATED GLOBAL VALUE OF $1-2 BILLION IN LOSSES. DUE TO THE COMPLEX LIFE CYCLE OF THE FUNGAL AGENT RESPONSIBLE FOR CLR (HEMILEIA VASTATRIX), THE DISEASE IS CHALLENGING TO MANAGE WHEN OUTBREAKS OCCUR AND CAN SPREAD RAPIDLY. THIS WORK AIMS TO UNDERSTAND WHETHER THE COMMUNITY OF OTHER MICROBES (PARTICULARLY FUNGI AND BACTERIA) PRESENT ON THE LEAF SURFACES OF COFFEE CAN HELP OR HINDER THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FUNGUS THAT CAUSES CLR. TO PURSUE THIS RESEARCH, I WILL USE DNA SEQUENCING TO IDENTIFY ANY DIFFERENCES IN THE FUNGAL AND BACTERIAL COMMUNITIES ON THE SURFACES OF HEALTHY AND CLR-INFECTED COFFEE LEAVES. I WILL ALSO INVESTIGATE IF DIFFERENT CULTIVARS OF COFFEE CAN HARBOR DIFFERENT COMMUNITIES OF FUNGI AND BACTERIA ON HEALTHY AND CLR-INFECTED LEAVES. CHANGES IN THESE COMMUNITIES ASSOCIATED WITH THE PROGRESSION OF THE CLR DISEASE WILL BE MONITORED IN GREENHOUSE EXPERIMENTS OVER A 4-WEEK PERIOD. LASTLY, THE EFFECT OF FUNGICIDES AND BIOLOGICAL CONTROL OF CLR ON THE COMMUNITIES OF LEAF SURFACE FUNGI AND BACTERIA WILL BE STUDIED. COMBINED, THE RESULTS OF THIS WORK CAN LEAD TO UNDERSTANDING THE MICROBIOLOGICAL INDICATORS THAT ARE ASSOCIATED WITH CLR DISEASE. THIS INSIGHT CAN AID IN THE SELECTION OF CULTIVARS GROWN AND THE PATHOGEN MANAGEMENT REGIME EMPLOYED TO COMBAT CLR. RESULTS OF THIS WORK WILL BE COMMUNICATED TO COFFEE GROWERS AND FARM LABORERS THROUGH WORKSHOPS, WITH THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY THROUGH RESEARCH ARTICLES AND CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS, AND WITH THE GENERAL PUBLIC THROUGH OPEN-ACCESS PUBLISHING AND COLLABORATING WITH EXTENSION AGENTS.

ON-FARM VALIDATION OF HARVESTING AS A CONTROL PRACTICE FOR COFFEE BERRY BORER INFESTATIONS - THE OVERALL GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS TO DEFINE, TEST AND IMPLEMENT SUITES OF CONTROL STRATEGIES IN AN INTEGRATED SYSTEM THAT CAN OPTIMALLY CONTROL COFFEE BERRY BORER (CBB) ACROSS THE VARIABLE COFFEE-GROWING LANDSCAPES IN HAWAII. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES ARE TO: 1) INVESTIGATE THE USE OF FREQUENT AND EFFECTIVE HARVESTING FOR COFFEE BERRY BORER CONTROL (CBB) ON COFFEE FARMS IN HAWAII. 2) ANALYZE THE COST-BENEFIT OF VARIOUS PRACTICES CONSIDERING ECONOMIC COST, AS WELL AS CROP QUALITY. 3) DEVELOP CBB MANAGEMENT RECOMMENDATIONS FOR GROWERS AND FIELD WORKERS.