September 2025 Arkansas Ag Research Report
Aranyak Goswami, assistant professor with the Center for Agricultural Data Analytics and the animal science and poultry science departments, provided an overview of his research program and the results he and his team are achieving at the inaugural AI in Ag Symposium.
IN THIS ISSUE:
- Experiment station hosts inaugural AI in Agriculture Symposium.
- Arkansas Center for Food Safety investigates hand sanitizers.
- Center for Scalable and Intelligent Automation in Poultry Processing gives update on USDA-NIFA funded project.
- Arkansas Rice Processing Program gets to the bottom of rice seed germination questions.
- Economic impact of agriculture in Arkansas explored in annual publication.
Big News
With AI assistance, scientists are pushing limits of agricultural research
More than 150 people from multiple disciplines were brought together in person and online in September to discuss how AI and machine learning are propelling research in agriculture.
The inaugural AI in Agriculture Symposium featured presentations from Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station faculty members Aranyak Goswami and Rich Adams, and guest speakers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, North Dakota State University, Bayer Crop Science, Tyson Foods and Walmart Global Tech. The event was organized by Samuel B. Fernandes, an assistant professor of agricultural statistics and quantitative genetics.
Adams, Goswami and Fernandes are also members of the experiment station’s Center for Agricultural Data Analytics, which aims to drive the advancement of research, collaboration and training in cutting-edge data science throughout the Division of Agriculture and Bumpers College.
Rich Adams, assistant professor with the Center for Agricultural Data Analytics and the entomology and plant pathology department, speaks at the AI in Agriculture Symposium, Sept. 15, in the Don Tyson Center for Agricultural Sciences in Fayetteville.
The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research presented Samuel B. Fernandes, an assistant professor of agricultural statistics and quantitative genetics, with a New Innovator in Food & Agriculture Research Award to enhance crop yield modeling that ultimately aims to support climate-resilient crop development.
The models Fernandes and his team are developing will directly integrate crop growth models, which include plant physiology and environmental interactions. Elvis Elli, assistant professor of crop physiology, will provide the crop growth models for the new genomic prediction framework.
The award, which comes with $450,000 in grant funding, was a first for a faculty member of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station.
Samuel B. Fernandes, an assistant professor with the Center for Agricultural Data Analytics and the crop, soil, and environmental sciences department.
National Food Safety Month
Arkansas food safety scientists share latest research on noroviruses, sanitizers, AI
Researchers with the Arkansas Center for Food Safety presented research updates and brought back a big award from the 2025 International Association for Food Protection Conference in Cleveland.
Sahaana Chandran, a food science Ph.D. student under the advisement of Kristen Gibson, director of the Center for Food Safety, placed third in the technical category of the J. Mac Goepfert Developing Scientists Awards for a study on human noroviruses.
Kavita Patil, Ph.D., presented results of a study on low-moisture foods. She was advised by Jennifer Acuff, an assistant professor of food safety and microbiology. Francis Torko, a Ph.D. student and graduate research assistant working with Gibson, also presented a poster summarizing a study evaluating hand sanitizers.
Jeyam Subbiah, a professor of food science, took part in a roundtable discussing the potential applications of artificial intelligence in food safety. And Gibson joined fellow food safety researchers in a symposium on research to improve food safety training for farmers market vendors.
Md Ashrafudoulla, left, Hanyi Shi, Sahaana Chandran, Eric Nuertey Tetteh and Francis Torko took part in the 2025 IAFP Conference in Cleveland. They are members of the Center for Food Safety, a part of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station. (Photo courtesy of IAFP)
While hand sanitizers are considered a reliable alternative to soap and water, the application time of hand sanitizer remained a question, according to a recently published study from researchers with the Arkansas Center for Food Safety.
Francis Torko, a Ph.D. student and research assistant, worked with Kristen Gibson, a professor of food safety and microbiology and director of the center, and found that rubbing the sanitizer in until it was dried worked best at killing viruses. The study also supported other research that found product formulation, rather than just active ingredient concentration, impacted product efficacy.
A study on hand sanitizers was conducted by researchers with the Center for Food Safety, a unit of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station.
Research Spotlights
Jeyam Subbiah, a professor of food science specializing in food safety engineering, joined his multi-state team of researchers in Arkansas, Georgia and Nebraska in an update on work conducted by the Center for Scalable and Intelligent Automation in Poultry Processing, or CSI-APP.
CSI-APP is supported by a four-year, $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
In addition to developing virtual reality headsets and controllers to remotely assist robotic “hands” to move poultry carcasses, the center’s researchers have also improved the accuracy of robotic deboning machines with AI, built an autonomous vehicle with a robotic arm to assess the effectiveness of sanitation, employed thermal imaging to detect foreign materials in packaged meat and used AI and hyperspectral imaging to detect a quality defect called “woody breast.”
An autonomous pathogen detection rover was developed by the Arkansas team with the Center for Scalable and Intelligent Automation in Poultry Processing to assess the effectiveness of sanitation in poultry processing facilities.
‘Every seed counts’: Study compares drying conditions for seed rice performance
Rice grown for seed rice was the focus of a yearlong investigation by the Arkansas Rice Processing Program using X-ray imaging to determine the impact of higher drying temperatures.
Samuel Olaoni, a Ph.D. student in the Department of Food Science under the advisement of Griffiths Atungulu, professor and director of the Rice Processing Program, showed that for two long grain rice varieties, moisture content at the time of harvest had more of an effect on both germination and seed vigor than hot-air drying temperatures.
The study, “Use of X-ray imaging to elucidate impacts of drying conditions and storage on seed rice germination and vigor,” was published in the journal Drying Technology in July. Atungulu and Kaushik Luthra, assistant professor of postharvest processing in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, were co-authors.
Griffiths Atungulu, left, professor and director of the Arkansas Rice Processing Program, and Ph.D. student Samuel Olaoni in the food science department, examined X-ray images of rice to determine optimum drying conditions for seed rice performance.
Watch
Renee Threlfall – Connecting Ag to Consumers
From the fields to grocery shelves, food science connects agriculture to consumers in powerful ways.
Renee Threlfall, an associate professor of food science and research scientist in enology and viticulture, tackles challenges like developing disease-resistant grapes, advancing robotic fruit harvesting, and improving crop quality from farm to market.
Hot off the Press
Economic Contribution of the Agricultural Sector to the Arkansas Economy in 2023
Agriculture is Arkansas’ biggest industry. This latest edition of our economic contribution of agriculture reports highlights the sector’s broad impact, spanning crops, animal agriculture, forestry, and other related industries. Altogether, agriculture accounted for 14% of the state’s employment and labor income, contributing $25.6 billion in value added and supporting over 248,000 jobs in 2023.
Upcoming Events
Oct. 2, 2025
Center for Food Animal Wellbeing Symposium
When: Oct. 2, 2025, 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Where: Online
Registration: FREE to attend
Note: The deadline for in-person registration has passed.
Faculty in the News
When Using Hand Sanitizer, Be Sure To Rub Your Hands Until Dry
Kristen Gibson, Food Science and Center for Food Safety
Forbes
Granderson: Tailgating will be the battlefield for GLP-1s vs. snack companies
Brandon McFadden, Ag Economics and Agribusiness
Los Angeles Times
Could AI chatbots become conscious?
Aranyak Goswami, Animal Science, Poultry Science and Center for Ag Data Analytics
The Hindu
Future of poultry processing includes automation, robotics & virtual reality headsets
Jeyam Subbiah, Food Science, and Dongyi Wang, Biological and Agricultural Engineering and Food Science
The Poultry Site
Research shows no differences in ‘penetrant’ and ‘retainer’ wetting agents
Mike Richardson, Horticulture
Golf Course Management Magazine
In Other News
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