South Plains Specialty Crop Research Projects
Receive Texas Department of Agriculture Funding

Writer: Tim W. McAlavy, (806) 746-6101, email: t-mcalavy@tamu.edu

LUBBOCK – Four specialty crop research projects conceived by Texas A&M scientists working at the Agricultural Research and Extension Center here were recently funded with grants totaling more than $73,000 from the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA).

The agency funded 13 specialty crop research projects statewide with more than $416,000 in grant monies. The Texas research grants are part of a $2.66 million United States Department of Agriculture block grant recently awarded to TDA
to assist specialty crop producers.

“These grants were made possible through a one-time Congressional appropriation to assist specialty crop producers nationwide,” said Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs. “Under the federal law creating these grants, specialty crops are defined as...any agricultural crop except wheat, feedgrains, oilseeds, cotton, rice, peanuts or tobacco.”

Each project proposal was reviewed and graded by an independent panel of scientists, marketing specialists, retailers
and producers. The panel rated projects on eligibility, objectives, research techniques and potential economic benefits,
Combs added.

South Plains research projects funded for 2002 include:

• Irrigation Guidelines for Texas Wine Grapes – $33,911. Texas wine grape producers currently have no guidelines to help them schedule vineyard irrigation. This project will use potential evapotranspiration formulas to develop guidelines which will enable growers to use water more efficiently and improve fruit and wine quality. Ed Hellman, Texas A&M-Texas Tech viticulture specialist, is the lead investigator.

• Improving the Texas Confectionary Sunflower Crop – $17,750. Texas Cooperative Extension agronomist Calvin Trostle
will lead this effort to develop management guidelines farmers can use to boost crop performance and to help increase confectionary sunflower acreage.

• Controlling a Green Bean Pest – $12,155.  Corn earworm damage on green beans produced in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico for processing plants threatens producers’ market share. This project, led by Extension entomologist Pat Porter, will evaluate why current control methods are not working on these pests.

• Enhancing Guar Production in the Texas South Plains – $9,667. Trostle will lead this project designed to enhance stand establishment of this drought-tolerant legume. Guar is grown for forage and its seeds, which are processed into guar gum. South Plains producers now plant about 42,000 acres to this crop annually, but acreage is expected to increase following establishment of a processing plant in Terry County (Brownfield).

 TDA awarded the remainder of its federal speciality crop block grant monies in this way: $1.18 million to fund specialty
crop marketing; $665,000 to fund pest and disease control; and $399,000 to fund a nutrition initiative.