Title: Understanding Agricultural Research, Development, and Application
Purpose Statement
Ever since I was little, my family would visit my uncle’s family’s farm in New Jersey to pick pumpkins around thanksgiving. When I got a little older I convinced my parents to let me stay over at their house so that I could wake up early in the morning to pick corn with my cousin. They always wake up super early in order to pick while the sun is still rising and its not too hot. I learned very early on that things are done in very specific ways on the farm because farmers have so much experience in perfecting their craft. Working on a farm is hard, hands on work, and it doesn’t make it easier that the growing season is when it is the hottest outside, and for a long part of the year plants can’t even survive outside. I’m so thankful for these experiences I had when I was little because I learned that being efficient and a hard worker yielded the best results. The times I spent on the farm have always stuck with me and is what I was most interested in when I began thinking about my Senior Project. I came came up with the purpose statement “My purpose is to explore and understand how agriculture is researched and developed so that people can get the nutrition they need and farmers can sustain a constantly growing population” because I wanted to get a better understanding of what goes into making a farm more productive and efficient in today’s world.
Essential Questions
What are your essential questions and why are they important to you?
After speaking with my Uncle, I came up with these essential questions that summed up what I am hoping to learn from this experience.
Essential Questions:
- How are crops genetically altered and developed to optimize characteristics like yield, flavor, disease resistance, and growing time?
- How are new varieties of plants researched to adapt them to grow and thrive in new regions?
- How do new varieties and species of plants affect a farms day to day operations and overall survivability as an industry?
The Project
What is the project and how does it help you accomplish your essential questions?(The challenge(s) (Personal, Academic, Creative, or Professional) that your project will address)
My Project will include working alongside my Uncle who is a county agent and the director for the Rutgers EARTH Center in South Brunswick, New Jersey. We will be working on the Rutgers Scarlet which is a variety of strawberry that he developed in 2015. During April and May he will be conducting research on methods to extend the growing season for New Jersey and Northeast farmers growing this species of strawberry and I will be able to work alongside him and help him with this research.
I will also be working with my Cousin who is a graduate student at Rutgers and is currently researching the viability of growing hazelnuts in the Northeast for his PHD. Through plant breeding and careful testing, his team are trying to provide local farmers with a sustainable new revenue stream. I will be able to work with him on the testing and data collection of specific varieties of hazelnuts.
Finally, I will be able to work on my Uncle’s Family farm, which grows the Rutgers Scarlet Strawberry and will be one of the first farms to grow the hazelnuts that my cousin is researching. The spring is an extremely important time at a farm because it is when plants are being grown in greenhouses so that when the weather is warm enough, they can be transplanted outside. This is one of the many ways farmers can get a head start on growing crops, and utilize their time more effectively in order to up their produce production.
The Plan
What does it look like on the ground/ day to day?ideally, this should also reference any steps you’ve taken to address feasibility issues
Starting Monday, April 12th and ending on Sunday, May 23rd I will be staying at my Aunt and Uncle’s house in Bordentown New Jersey, as well as my cousin’s house located a few minutes away in Chesterfield, New Jersey. I will alternate working alongside my Uncle on his strawberry research at the EARTH center in South Brunswick and my cousin on his Hazelnut research in Cream Ridge, New Jersey. The remaining time I will be working at the Hlubik farm in Chesterfield, New Jersey where I will help plant, grow and transplant crops in the greenhouses at the farm.
I will take a COVID test before I stay with my Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin and for the research, I will only be working alongside my cousin and my uncle on various farms. It will be very easy to work on a farm and remain socially distanced.
Documentation
Throughout my project I will photograph and document the work I do each day. For the final presentation, I hope to share the findingings on the two plants I will be researching, Hazelnuts and strawberries, as well as how those developments in plant research actually impact a farm. I hope to be able to learn from the experience of working with farmers and scientists and understand their views firsthand in addition to asking questions and understanding problems . I think the Virtual Presentation format will work very well because I will be able to convey my findings and experience more accurately through the photos and videos of the work I am doing. I want to be able to guide the viewer through my journey visually so they can understand how I arrived to the conclusions I made.