Digging for Carrots at the End of the Rainbow
This year marks the beginning of the final four-year OREI grant funding cycle for our Carrot Improvement for Organic Agriculture (CIOA) project. We kicked off the year as we always do with a favorite “work vacation” to the winter carrot nursery at University of California Desert Research Station in El Centro, California to harvest and evaluate thousands of carrots. Even though we’ve been going for nearly a decade, this week of carrot harvesting never fails to unearth new and exciting roots that pique our interests and imaginations.
Funding
This project was funded by the Organic Research and Extension Initiative grant, part of the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Award # 2011-51300-30903; Award # 2016-51300-25721: CIOA 2- Carrot Improvement for Organic Agriculture With Added Grower and Consumer Valuel Award # 2021-51300-34900: Carrot Improvement for Organic Agriculture: Leveraging On-Farm and Below Ground Networks.