USDA awards $1.1 million in research projects to combat invasive pests

USDA awards $1.1 million in research projects to combat invasive pests    The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded $1.1 million to seven American universities to conduct research on measures to fight harmful pests and diseases, and to determine the economic implications of preventing, controlling or eradicating invasive pests.
   The agreements provide funding to research institutes in Arizona, California, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, New Mexico, and Wyoming.
   Some of the areas the research agreements will cover are the benefits and costs of policy options to manage potential risks associated with commercial imports of non-native nursery stock; the economic effects of different inspection regimes for imported products to improve the design of prevention and enforcement tools; the economic effects of phytosanitary barriers to U.S. seed exports; and the potential for some rules and policies to encourage overseas producers of exports to voluntarily comply with U.S. import standards for invasive species.
   The USDA said these agreements were competitively awarded through its Program of Research on the Economics of Invasive Species Management (PREISM). For more information about the projects, access on line https://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/invasivespecies.