• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Annual Rice Day in Beaumont, Texas, Area Provides New Research About the Crop

Posted on: Friday, 15 July 2005, 12:01 CDT

Jul. 15--Rice farmers battle water weevils, stink bugs and other nuisances Mother Nature throws in the way.

But for almost every annoyance, there is someone developing a defense.

Guests at the 58th Annual Rice Field Day on Thursday learned how researchers from the Texas A&M University Agriculture Research and Extension Center have advanced protection for rice plants.

On a winding tour through rice fields at the university's center west of Beaumont, researchers used the crop as a backdrop to describe their ongoing work and latest discoveries.

For instance, the newly introduced Presidio rice variety has improved milling yield, cooking quality and resistance to disease, said Jay Cockrell, the center's communications specialist.

Researchers have made progress throughout the decades, with fields in 1940 yielding 1,500 pounds per acre compared to 9,000 pounds now, she said.

Every growing season brings its own problems, and this year the Lower Neches Valley Authority canals were invaded by a new weed.

Farmers were alerted to the Salvinia, an aggressive weed that can clog meters, said Dawn Pilcher, an engineer for LNVA.

Pilcher said her agency is vigilant about its removal, but their personnel need farmers to tell them of problem spots.

"If you ignore it, it will overtake the entire water service," she said.

The show-and-tell is not one-sided.

Farmers ask questions or encourage research based on specific problems with their crop, Cockrell said.

In his home country of Mexico, organic rice farmer Jorge Luis Ayala doesn't have government-funded researchers to lean on for advice.

He came to the United States specifically for the field day to find out more about biological control of predators.

In particular, Ayala wanted to know how to manage the water weevil, which has destroyed half of his crop, he said.

-----

To see more of The Beaumont Enterprise, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.southeasttexaslive.com.

Copyright (c) 2005, The Beaumont Enterprise, Texas

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Beaumont Enterprise

More News in this Category