Designing and Disseminating
Better Health and Nutrition
Practices
Biological Control of Insect Pests
Enhancing
Well-Being
Agricultural Research Center–Hays
Building and
Protecting Global
Food Systems
Enabling Impactful
Technologies
DECODING NATURE
Kansas State University Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activities and Discovery Strengths
Overview
Kansas grew more than 199 million bushels of sorghum for grain in 2014, enough to make it the highest-producing sorghum
state in the nation. The invasive sugarcane aphid, Melanaphis sacchari, swept across much of the southern Great Plains in 2013 and
caused serious yield losses in grain sorghum. Researchers at the Kansas State University Agricultural
Research Center–Hays are working to decode nature and build and protect global food systems by
identifying the natural enemies of sugarcane aphid and their roles in suppressing populations of
this pest.
Entomologists are assessing biological pre-adaptations of key native natural enemy species and
determining the toxicity to beneficial species of novel insecticides relied upon to control sugarcane aphid.
Host plant resistance can assist biological control, so researchers have also identified sources of sorghum
plants’ resistance to sugarcane aphid and greenbug, another economically important sorghum pest.
Impact
World demand for sorghum is rising. In fighting sugarcane aphids, K-State researchers are both protecting the economic interests
of Kansas farmers and building and protecting global food systems as we work to feed a world population projected to reach more
than 9 billion people in 2050. Biological control working in concert with host plant resistance traits in
crops is the most permanent, cost-effective and environmentally friendly of all pest control solutions.
This approach is known as Integrated Pest Management, or IPM. IPM aims to combine cultural,
chemical and biological control tactics to protect crops and save producers money.
Adopting IPM requires exploring how to accelerate the evolution of natural biological controls in
managed agroecosystems such as sorghum monocultures, how to conserve beneficial species, and how
to minimize the impacts of pesticide applications on nontarget species. This approach helps prevent
serious economic losses and protects the environment.
About Kansas State University
Kansas State University was established in 1863 as the nation’s first operational land-grant university. We’ve held firmly to the landgrant philosophy of serving our world through discovery and innovation. Today, the university is on its way to becoming a Top 50
public research university by 2025 through supporting, encouraging, and growing our research efforts.
1887 Agricultural Experiment Station
Important
points in time
for K-State
Research
1967 Alf Landon Lecture
built to analyze horticultural and
entomological subjects
1863 Kansas State University
1944 First U.S. patent application
founded
filed for a plastic container for
frozen foods
2015 National Bio and
Series on Public Issues
established
Agro-Defense Facility
groundbreaking
1997 Hale Library expansion
completed
$184.9 million in FY2014 research expenditures 4 USAID
RECENT SUCCESSES:
14 patents granted in 2014
$473.9 million
in FY2014 endowment
Office of the
Vice President for Research
Feed the Future Innovation Labs
1,000 research grants in FY2014
more than
4,300 graduate students
k-state.edu/research
@KState_RSCAD