Maninder Kaur Walia is the IR-4 State Liaison Representative for Nevada
University of Nevada, Reno
775-336-0257
waliam@unr.edu
What is the IR-4 Project?
Since 1963, the IR-4 Project has been the primary entity in the United States to facilitate registrations of conventional pest management and biopesticides on specialty food crops (fruits, vegetables, nuts, herbs, spices) and non-food environmental horticulture crops. IR-4 is sponsored by a grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
The IR-4 Project in Nevada
Nevada stakeholders have worked with IR-4 over the years on new food uses for specialty crops such as alfalfa sprouts, cucumbers, field pennycress, camelina, grasses for forage and hay such as timothy, and teff as a gluten free grain alternative. These are just a few of the thousands of registrations IR-4 has secured for Nevada growers and others in the west. Many new registrations and uses have also resulted from IR-4 projects on environmental horticulture crops.
Examples of pest management registration expansions resulting from Nevada requests
Maninder Walia serves as Nevada’s State Liaison Representative to the IR-4 Project. In this role Maninder works with Nevada’s specialty crop stakeholders to identify pest management needs and potential solutions, while advocatimg for IR-4 projects to support Nevada specialty crops.