Pistachio crop threatened by fungus

Nov 6, 2012

The California Report, a popular radio news program that is broadcast throughout the state on public radio stations, devoted five minutes this morning to a solution found at the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Centerfor a serious pistachio production problem.

Reporter Alice Daniel interviewed Kearney-based UC Davis plant pathologist Themis Michailides, who led the team that discovered how to expose pistachio trees to spores of a beneficial fungus that displaces the fungi that produce aflatoxin.

Though the story was broadcast this morning, it can still be heard on The California Report website and is embedded below:

For more information on the beneficial fungus, AF-36, which was used for the first time in commercial pistachio orchards this past summer, read Pistachio farmers enlist a beneficial fungus to battle aflatoxin.


By Jeannette E. Warnert
Author - Communications Specialist