{"id":114,"date":"2021-09-29T16:34:20","date_gmt":"2021-09-29T16:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.magazine.cals.ncsu.edu\/?p=114"},"modified":"2021-10-13T16:15:17","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T16:15:17","slug":"cals-international-programs-partnering-for-our-planets-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.cals.ncsu.edu\/cals-international-programs-partnering-for-our-planets-progress\/","title":{"rendered":"CALS International Programs Partners for Our Planet\u2019s Progress"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Avocado and corn make an unlikely, but highly successful, pair. Turn Mexican avocados into guacamole, and you increase the demand for U.S. corn chips. And with more corn chips, you increase the market for avocados.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, a good year for Mexican avocado growers translates into a good year for U.S. corn chip producers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Jose Cisneros, the CALS International Programs<\/a> director, says, \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter how you look at it\u2014from here to there or from there to here\u2014our economies are linked and we depend on one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a beauty to see how the economy and entrepreneurship can be developed here based on ingredients we don\u2019t grow here\u2014things like the beans used to make coffee and chocolate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, he adds, it\u2019s a beauty to see how NC State\u2019s education, research and Extension programs work in North Carolina and abroad to spur economic growth, improve quality of life and prepare students for careers that span borders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To achieve those results, CALS faculty members forge collaborations with industry, governments, research institutions and nonprofit organizations, working on every continent except Antarctica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such projects have helped farmers in developing nations manage plant diseases and insects that harm life-sustaining crops; determined the toll that climate change is taking on rice, one of the world\u2019s most important crops; improved nutrition; trained graduate students in advanced scientific technology\u2014and much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Where in the World is CALS?<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Collaborating with scientists on six continents, CALS researchers are finding solutions to problems, benefiting North Carolinians and people worldwide. Read the 6 maps in this story to learn more about a research highlight on each continent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Potato Pest<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The Colorado potato beetle is a problem for both North Carolina and Croatian farmers. Photo credit: Whitney Cranshaw.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur research question is important, and we also think that we can make an impact with additional interactions with the University of Zagreb and potential student exchanges.\u201d<\/strong>
– Anders Huseth<\/strong><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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The Problem<\/h2><\/a>
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Colorado potato beetles are one of the potato\u2019s biggest foes. The increasingly pesticide-resistant insects destroy leaves\u2014and if they attack before the underground part we eat is formed, they can kill a farmer\u2019s entire crop. That\u2019s important because the potato is the world\u2019s fourth-most-important food crop and generates $350 million in annual income for North Carolina farmers.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Partnership<\/strong><\/h2><\/a>
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With researcher Renata Ba\u017eok at the University of Zagreb in Croatia, CALS entomologist Anders Huseth is using advanced mapping and analysis tools to better understand how the intensity of potato production relates to how pesticide resistance is evolving in Colorado potato beetles in the Eastern European country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ba\u017eok has collected data on the beetles, and Huseth\u2014a Colorado potato beetle expert\u2014is helping analyze it to determine and document approaches that could prevent resistance. The researchers expect to see a relationship between the scale of production, or field size, and the likelihood of detecting beetles\u2019 resistance to commonly available insecticides.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Impact<\/strong><\/h2><\/a>
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Huseth and Ba\u017eok\u2019s research will shed light on resistance not only in Colorado potato beetles but also in other pests. Resistance is a growing problem worldwide, with over 600 species of pests becoming more and more tolerant of chemical pesticides. That limits farmers\u2019 options for managing insects\u2014which can lead to higher economic and environmental costs, Huseth says.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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They Call it a \u2018Win-Win\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

International collaboration also works for NC State and the people it serves in North Carolina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rick Brandenburg<\/a> has seen that first-hand. He\u2019s a longtime NC State Extension specialist who recently joined the international programs office as associate director of global extension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThrough my international work over the last three decades, I\u2019ve developed networks with other international researchers and learned from them,\u201d Brandenburg says. \u201cAnd I\u2019ve been able to learn more about peanut production under a variety of environments and use that knowledge to enhance my Extension programs for growers in North Carolina.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cisneros puts it this way: \u201cWhat you learn outside will make you a better scientist, a better educator, and a better Extension agent here. You learn a lot when you\u2019re outside\u2014different angles to solve problems. Without that experience abroad, you are limited to your own local experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brandenburg points out another advantage. Funding from federal and foreign governments for international programs often supports domestic research that helps solve problems for N.C. growers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the last 20 years, 90% of the support for U.S. graduate students in my program working on North Carolina pest management problems on peanuts have been funded by international projects,\u201d he notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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NC State student (now alumnus) Anna Wyngaarden examines subalpine flowers on Balang Mountain near China\u2019s Sichuan Province.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Just as important, Cisneros says, is the fact that CALS\u2019 international work can indirectly help farmers and agribusinesses gain access to export markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you want to sell your products outside, you need the market to know you first. If you want to sell your swine and your poultry and your sweetpotato, you will get a better response if the buyer knows about North Carolina agriculture\u2014its quality, its technology and its connections to a leading agricultural university.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conducting international research, he says, builds trust that\u2019s essential to creating new export markets\u2014and many times results in a premium price for U.S. products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Big Bee Issue<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Postdoc Alison McAfee studies honeybee health in North Carolina and British Columbia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome research on colonies in the Eastern United States has shown that when a queen fails or is superseded, that colony has a three times higher risk of dying.\u201d <\/strong><\/strong>
– Allison McAfee<\/strong><\/strong><\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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The Problem<\/h2><\/a>
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In the United States and Canada, honeybee health has declined over roughly 20 years, with beekeepers losing about 25% to 40% of their colonies annually. And queen bees\u2014the only female bees that can reproduce\u2014are failing faster in their ability to reproduce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeekeepers have identified problem queens as a top management concern, but what\u2019s causing the problem is largely invisible. Queens go bad, and we don\u2019t know why,\u201d says David Tarpy, a CALS entomologist.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Partnership<\/strong><\/h2><\/a>
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Working with Tarpy and researchers at the University of British Columbia in Canada, postdoctoral researcher Alison McAfee uncovered clues about what\u2019s behind queen bee failure. She found that when more of the queen\u2019s stored sperm were dead, the queens produced more proteins used to fight off infections. That suggests that queens make a trade-off between maintaining stored sperm and fighting infections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initial surveys point to viruses as a potential cause of queen failure, so Abigail Chapman, a Ph.D. student in British Columbia, collected queens, other honeybees, and parasitic mites to find out which viruses might be hurting the queens. Her recent experiments focus on how different viruses affect the queen\u2019s ability to lay eggs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A partnership with the British Columbia Bee Breeders\u2019 Association has been instrumental in the research, as has support from private donors and Hives for Humanity of British Columbia. The researchers are also working with two Canadian queen bee suppliers and the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The Impact<\/strong><\/h2><\/a>
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\u201cThe more we can find out about what is actually happening within these failed queens, the closer we can get to understanding why this queen failure is happening in the first place,\u201d notes McAfee, who works for both NC State and UBC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tarpy adds that the findings could allow scientists to find the precise cause of queen failure and to identify molecular tools that could help identify bad queens before beekeepers use them.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Maintaining the Momentum<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

To keep mutual benefits coming, CALS\u2019 International Programs office coordinates and supports the interests and efforts of faculty members and students from here and from other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the work it does to build on university study abroad programs, the office helps faculty members coordinate visits from international scholars and scientists. These visitors come with the intention of gaining and sharing new expertise and skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The office has a small staff: Adrienne Tucker serves as assistant director, overseeing and managing initiatives aimed at increasing global engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n