Agricultural Research

Kathryn A. Stofer, Md. Samiul Basir, Justin Pitts, Fabio A. Castiblanco, and Yaguang Zhang

Organizations, including research teams and centers, non-profits, industry and government recruiters, and university departments hoping to attract students, often staff tables at career expos such as those at national conferences. This publication, intended for anyone who may coordinate an organization’s representation at a similar event, will take you through the steps of planning, materials preparation, and setting up and staffing a conference booth at a career expo. This publication is one of a series related to work from the Internet of Things for Precision Agriculture (IoT4Ag), a National Science Foundation-funded Engineering Research Center. Written by Kathryn A. Stofer, Md. Samiul Basir, Justin Pitts, Fabio A. Castiblanco, and Yaguang Zhang, and published by the UF/IFAS Department of Agricultural Education and Communication, June 2025.

Julia Delaney Ulrich, Suzanne Thornsbury, Christa Court, and Amanda B. Heinzmann

This publication describes why science and research are critical to the future success of agriculture. It provides an overview of challenges to evaluating outcomes of research investments and some common approaches to measuring returns. The authors summarize emerging federal science and research priorities significant for Florida agriculture. The publication is intended as a helpful reference for Florida producers, taxpayers, and state government agencies. It is part of a series that examines federal policies relevant to specialty crops.

Shawn Steed, Wael Elwakil, Marissa Cassaway, andGary Vallad

Viburnum sp. is an important woody ornamental crop for nursery growers in Florida. Around 2014, growers indicated that common labeled fungicides targeting downy mildew failed to provide acceptable levels of disease management. Through a research grant from the Florida Nursery, Growers and Landscape Association, UF/IFAS researchers and UF/IFAS Extension Hillsborough County agents conducted studies to determine fungicide efficacy of oomycete fungicides to help nursery professionals produce and maintain a healthy viburnum crop. Written by Shawn Steed, Wael Elwakil, Marissa Cassaway, and Gary Vallad, and published by the UF/IFAS Department of Environmental Horticulture, December 2025.

Santhi Daggubati, Xu Wang, Xue Zhou, Shubham Singh, andJessica Chitwood-Brown

Manual quantification of specialty crop traits, such as flowers and fruits, is often labor-intensive, time-consuming, and inconsistent, limiting scalability and precision. We present PhenoSnap, an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered web application that provides an intuitive and efficient interface for automated specialty crop trait extraction from images. PhenoSnap bridges the gap between advanced computer vision technologies and practical agricultural applications by eliminating the need for programming expertise. This ready-to-use solution can enable growers, breeders, and Extension faculty to accelerate field work and enhance decision-making related to strawberry and tomato yield estimation for breeding selections and strawberry runner management. Written by Santhi Daggubati, Xu Wang, Xue Zhou, Shubham Singh, and Jessica Chitwood-Brown, and published by the UF/IFAS Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, June 2026.