The goals and objectives of this internship include gaining a better understanding of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) especially biological controls and to be able to extrapolate the information and data collected during the project towards slowing disease spread in specialty crops; alfalfa mosaic virus vectored by aphids to chili peppers. The scope of the project encompasses field work; working in an alfalfa field, collecting data on AMV disease incidence (% infected plants) and severity (symptoms on individual plants) and conducting data analysis for extrapolation of findings. The intern would also be engaging with the local farming community, working with farmers to learn from them and educate them on the IMP practice in this project.
