FFAR, Almond Board of California, award $5M for biotech research to defeat navel orangeworm 

The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research, in partnership with the Almond Board of California, has announced a $5 million grant to Flyttr–a biotech pest-control company–to develop tools targeting the navel orangeworm, a pest that causes more than $800 million in annual losses for California almond and pistachio growers. The project will advance Flyttr’s “friendly” male moth approach, in which released males mate with wild females but produce no surviving offspring, reducing pest populations. The funding will support technology development, large-scale production research, and field studies, with the goal of reducing crop losses without reliance on chemical insecticides.