US-Israel cooperative development research program

Fifteen subprojects will be funded during FY85. Tel Aviv U. (TAU) and Ghana"s Forest Research Center (FRC) will study the role of double stranded RNA viruses of fungi in regulating the virulence of plant pathogens. TAU and Malawi"s Makoka Agricultural Experiment Station will develop integrated methods for controlling Bemisia tabaci, a source of cassava mosaic virus. TAU and Portugal"s National Laboratory for Civil Engineering will further develop a stochastic method for characterizing spatially distributed hydraulic properties of groundwater aquifers using space field measurements. The Volcani Center (VC), Israel, and Portugal"s Estacao Agronomica Nacional will collect wild wheats in Portugal and Israel and screen them for resistance to "take-all" disease. Resistant genes will be transferred into the cultivated wheats Triticum durum Def. and Triticum aestivum L. The same two entities will screen and identify drought-resistant wheat cultivars and train Portugese staff in new screening techniques. VC and Thailand"s Khon Kaen U. will develop a compact sized cashew nut sheller. Israel"s Bar-Ilan U. and Agricultural Research Organization (Dor) will work with the Technology Research Center Foundation in the Philippines to evaluate the autosomal and chromosomal influence on Tilapias. Hebrew U. (HU) and FRC in Ghana will study the use of the natural microorganisms of Ghanaian soils as biocontrol agents against soil-borne fungal pathogens. HU will work with Thailand"s Field Crop Research Institute to enhance the genetic variability of, and breed improved cultivars of, sesame (S. indicum). HU and the U. of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, will develop a field probe for simple, fast, and sensitive detection of the physiological condition and photosynthetic productivity of Azolla. HU and ICAITI, Guatemala, will study the microbiological control of the Caffea arabice-Hemileia vastatrix association by inoculating the infected plant with the competing or parasitic microbes. Israel"s Biotechnological Applications Ltd. and Guinea"s Ministry of Agriculture will seek to improve Bacillus sphaericus as a biocontrol agent of disease-transmitting mosquitoes. Israel"s Ben Gurion U. (BGU) and Terre Aide, Botswana, will study potentially marketable fruit and nut crops native to Botswana and other subtropical regions. BGU and ICAITI, Guatemala, will evaluate the use of high range anaerobic digestion and high rate oxidation ponds in reducing pollution from discharges of pulp prepared via sulphate-soda processes. Delron Development, Ltd., Israel, and the U. of the Philippines at Los Banos will study the use of naturally occurring stable isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen as indigenous tracers for studying the flow and rate of human nutrients. For subprojects in later FY"s, see abstracts in DOCUMENT.