Duration: 10/01/2005 to 09/30/2010

Administrative Advisor(s):

NIFA Reps:

Non-Technical Summary

Statement of Issues and Justification

Sweet corn is one of the most popular vegetables in the U.S. (Anon., 2001; Lucier and Lin, 2001) and its popularity is growing rapidly throughout the world (Anon., 1997; Lucier, 2000). In the U.S. diet, sweet corn makes up a particularly large share of the vegetables consumed by children, and is an important source of fiber, minerals, and certain vitamins (Goldman and Tracy, 1994). In the U.S. sweet corn for processing is grown on approximately 420,000 acres with an annual farm value of $210 million. A multiplier of eight gives an approximate added value for processing of $1.7 billion. As much as one quarter of this processed corn is exported. Approximately 250,000 acres are grown for the fresh market with a farm value of about $530 million. For many U.S. agricultural areas, sweet corn provides an important source of farm income. The vast majority of sweet corn seed for the worlds crop is produced in the U.S (Marshall and Tracy, 2002).

The U.S. has long dominated the world sweet corn market, but U.S. leadership is being seriously challenged in both processed and fresh sweet corn (Anonymous, 1997). In one recent year, France exceeded the U.S. in exports of processed product. China, Thailand, and Brazil are all mounting challenges in processed sweet corn. Imports of fresh sweet corn into the U.S. from Mexico have skyrocketed and China is exporting fresh sweet corn to Japan (Marshall and Tracy, 2002). If sweet corn is to remain a viable crop in the U.S., critical challenges must be addressed.

To expand consumption in both the U.S. and the important export markets, food and nutritional quality of the product must be improved. Better flavor, greater tenderness, enhanced nutritional value, optimal health-promoting properties, and improved food safety are traits that this committee will focus on. To achieve some of these goals, new endosperm mutants will be used, but these mutants often have agronomic deficiencies such as poor germination, and low vigor (Azanza et al., 1996; Boyer and Shannon,1984; Parera et al., 1996). Coordinated research on seed physiology and its relation to quality is needed (Wilson and Mohan, 1998; Wilson et al., 1993).

Another critical challenge to the sweet corn industry is pest management to ensure consistently high field performance with a minimum of pesticide input (Pataky et al. 1988, 1990; Du Toit and Pataky, 1999). Consumers of sweet corn have little tolerance for pest damage. They are also concerned about pesticide residues and genetically engineered crop varieties (Lynch et al., 1999). The lucrative export markets have even higher demands (Jenni, 1994). Fortunately, sweet corn shares the same gene pool with the much more diverse field corn, and naturally occurring resistances for many pests can be identified and transferred from field corn to sweet corn (Marshall and Tracy, 2002). Since sweet corn expertise is widely scattered we need to coordinate research on identification, inheritance, and incorporation of pest resistance. Another important group of pests are weeds. This is an especially important problem to be addressed by this committee. Processors and growers are losing older herbicides and few new ones are being registered (OSullivan et al., 2002). This committee will coordinate the search for genes that increase the competitiveness of sweet corn so that lower rates and more effective herbicides can be used in sweet corn production systems. The committee will also coordinate trials designed to evaluate the effectiveness and optimal management of new herbicide chemistries on new sweet corn types and varieties.

To keep the sweet corn crop viable, coordination of research efforts is required because publicly-supported sweet corn researchers are widely scattered across the country. Seldom is there more than one individual working on sweet corn at a given location. Rarely is there a breeder at the same location as a physiologist or pathologist. Over the years it has been in existence, NE-124 greatly enhanced collaboration among State Agricultural Experiment Stations, including collaborations among many scientific disciplines and across the range from basic to applied research. Additionally, industry scientists have been intimately involved with the NE-124 project. Twenty to thirty industry scientists regularly attend and contribute to NE-124 meetings. The resulting synergism among the stations and between public and private sectors is becoming increasingly important, particularly in light of decreasing research budgets in both sectors.

Stakeholders include the vegetable seed industry and vegetable processors, two groups that meet regularly with this project. A third group of stakeholders are sweet corn growers. These growers are found in every state and range from small organic CSAs to large commercial vegetable producers. The ultimate stakeholders are sweet corn consumers, especially children, for whom sweet corn constitutes a significant portion of their vegetable consumption.

Objectives

Procedures and Activities

The committee will meet at least once per year.


Research reports from committee members will be presented and discussed. Data from the previous season's multistate trials will be shared. A planning session will follow, during which plans and protocols for national seed treatment and herbicide trials will be developed. Breeders, pathologists, entomologists, and geneticists will plan multistate breeding programs and gene mapping studies.


At this meeting, reports will be given by representatives of the sweet corn seed industry, processors, and fresh market sector, and the administrative advisor, and the CSREES representative.


This meeting will be in conjunction with the annual meeting of the International Sweet Corn Development Association. At this meeting formal presentations on topics of importance to the sweet corn industry will be presented. Members from academia and industry participate in both meetings, greatly increasing the level of expertise, dissemination of information, and overall productivity in both sessions.


These meetings will usually take place at a location convenient for travel (an air hub) but when appropriate, meetings may be held in areas where committee members can view aspects of the sweet corn industry, such as Idaho for seed production or Wisconsin for sweet corn processing.


The committee will maintain a listserv through which information and announcements can be rapidly shared with the sweet corn community.


The committee will provide useful and current information to the committee homepage on the NIMSS website.

Expected Outcomes and Impacts

Projected Participation

View Appendix E: Participation

Educational Plan

The scientists involved in this project all have active research programs and will publish peer reviewed articles on the results of the studies coordinated under this project. Most of the scientists also have some type of outreach activity, often presenting to producer groups and farmer meetings and publishing in the proceedings of such meetings. A number of the researchers also have websites where their research results are published. Promote WEB Sites via 'Vegetable Insect Management' references.

Internal Linkages: Internal linkages found in a complete table of resources utilizing the format in Appendix E.

External Linkages: In addition to the public sector scientists listed in the table, 20 to 30 scientists from the private sector attend our meetings. These are mainly representatives of the sweet corn seed production, and vegetable production and processing industries. They are not merely observers. They provide information on their industries and data from their research programs. There are often scientists from seed companies from other countries, most notably Japan, Australia, Israel, and Argentina. All of these individuals participate fully in the meeting, allowing U.S. scientists to get a complete picture of the status of the world sweet corn crop.

Organization/Governance

Governance: Ongoing governance consists of a Chair and a Secretary. All officers serve a one-year term. Each year, a new secretary is elected at the end of the meeting and immediately begins duty. At that time the secretary from the previous year becomes Chair. Administrative guidance is provided by the assigned Administrative Advisor and CSREES representative.

Literature Cited

ANONYMOUS. 1997. Process sweet corn situation in selected countries. World Horticultural Trade and U.S. Export Opportunities, USDA Foreign Agric. Service. Circ. Series FHORT 11-97.


ANONYMOUS. 2001. Agricultural Statistics. National Agricultural Statistics Service. US Department of Agriculture. US Government Printing Office Washington DC.


AZANZA, F., BAR-ZUR, A., AND JUVIK, J.A. 1996. Variation in sweet corn kernel characteristics associated with stand establishment and eating quality. Euphytica 87:7-18.


BAIRD, R. E., NANKAM, C., FALLAH-MOGHADDAM, P., AND PATAKY, J. K. 1994. Evaluation of seed treatments on shrunken-2 sweet corn. Plant Dis. 78:817-821.


BOYER, C.D., and SHANNON, J.C. 1984. The use of endosperm genes for sweet corn improvement. Plant Breed. Rev. 1:139-161.


DU TOIT, L.J., and PATAKY, J.K. 1999. Reactions of processing sweet corn hybrids to Gibberella ear rot. Plant Dis. 83:176-180.


GOLDMAN, I. L. and TRACY, W.F. 1994. Kernel protein concentration in sugary1 (su1) and shrunken2 (sh2) sweet corn. HortSci., 29:209-210.


JENNI, J.K. 1994. Innovative use, popularity fuel Japanese taste for U.S. sweet corn. USDA, Foreign Agricultural Service. AgExporter 6:17-18.


LUCIER, G. 2000. Vegetables and Specialties Situation and Yearbook. Economic Research Service. Economic Research Service. USDA. Washington D.C.


LUCIER, G., and LIN, B-H. 2001. How sweet it is: Fresh sweet Corn. Agricultural Outlook August p. 11-14. Economic Research Service. USDA. Washington D.C.


LYNCH, R.E., WISEMAN, B.R., PLAISTED, D., and WARNICK, D. 1999. Evaluation of transgenic sweet corn hybrids expressing CryIA(b) toxin for resistance to corn earworm and fall armyworm (Lepidoptera : Noctuidae). J. Econ. Entom. 92:246-252.


MARSHALL, S.W. and W.F. TRACY. 2003. Sweet Corn. pp. 537-569 in Corn Chemistry and Technology, Second Edition. eds. P.E. Ramstad and P. White. American Association of Cereal Chemists, Minneapolis, MN.


O'SULLIVAN J, J. ZANDSTRA, P. SIKKEMA. 2002. Sweet corn (Zea mays) cultivar sensitivity to mesotrione. Weed Technology 16 (2): 421-425.


PARERA, C.A., CANTLIFFE, D.J., MCCARTY. D.R. and HANNAH L.C. 1996. Improving vigor in shrunken-2 corn seedlings. J. Amer. Soc. Hort. Sci. 121:1069-1075.


PATAKY, J.K., HEADRICK, J.M., and SUPARYONO. 1988. Classification of sweet corn reactions to common rust, northern leaf blight, Stewart's wilt, and Goss's wilt and associated yield reductions. Phytopath. 78:172-178.


PATAKY, J.K., MURPHY, J.F., and D'ARCY, C.J. 1990. Resistance to maize dwarf mosaic virus, severity of symptoms, titer of virus, and yield of sweet corn. Plant Dis. 74:359-364.


WILSON, D.O. Jr., and MOHAN, S.K. 1998. Unique seed quality problems of sh2 sweet corn. Seed-technol. 20:176-186.


WILSON, D.O. Jr., MOHAN, S.K., KNOTT, E.A., and SHAFII, B. 1993. Evaluation of fungicide seed treatments for Shrunken-2 ("supersweet") sweet corn. : Plant Dis. 77:348-351.

Attachments

Land Grant Participating States/Institutions

ID, IL, MN, NY, OH, OR, PA, WI

Non Land Grant Participating States/Institutions