Florida Ag Scientists Look to New Crop Transformation Center as Hub of Hope
University of Florida scientists plan to utilize $2 million from an initiative by UF President Ben Sasse for a Crop Transformation Center to help Florida farmers improve production of citrus and specialty crops.
For now, front and center among goals for the center is to find citrus varieties that can tolerate or even resist citrus greening disease (aka, HLB).
Growers are looking for solutions to the disease, which has caused a 70% to 80% reduction in production to Florida’s signature crop.
The center objectives include:
- Developing rapid genome improvements for citrus.
- Leveraging artificial intelligence to discover new gene functions to identify targets for genetic modification.
- Use clear communication and engagement with regulatory agencies to increase the transparency of the approval process.
- Infuse social science to ensure rapid adoption of new technologies among growers and the public.
- Effectively communicate to the public.
Eric Triplett, Chair of the UF/IFAS Microbiology and Cell Science Department, founded the center as a cornerstone to get HLB-tolerant cultivars to growers faster.
“We’ve long recognized that breeding is the Swiss Army knife of agricultural science. With the right genetic crop modifications, we can solve almost any challenge in growing food,” says Scott Angle, UF’s interim Provost and Senior VP for agriculture and natural resources. “The center will allow us to much more effectively employ biotechnology tools to increase the speed and accuracy of our plant breeding.”
Angle has been meeting with citrus industry leaders for the past three months to garner support and input on goals for the center.
“We already have the nation’s leading university plant breeding program, and the center will turbocharge those efforts,” he continues. “We’ll start with citrus because that is a commodity in crisis. But I see the center’s portfolio rapidly expanding to include other crops in which Florida is the No. 1 producer nationally (including Valencia oranges, sweet corn and watermelon) as well as crops where we could become a national or international leader—producing jobs and revenue—if we can develop the right varieties for Florida production.”
Charlie Messina, Director of the center and a UF/IFAS Professor of horticultural sciences, says it will take scientists from many disciplines to bring solutions to stakeholders.
“This center creates a nexus where state-of-the-art capabilities will enable transdisciplinary UF scientists, breeders and international partners to develop tools and create cultivars to spur economic growth, while improving human well-being and environment health,” Messina says.
Scientists see developing varieties that tolerate or resist greening as the best way to overcome the disease. Toward that goal, there’s increasing consensus to use horticultural technologies thought to be impractical until recently, according to a presentation by Triplett.
Triplett is working with Messina to hire two faculty in the immediate future, which will have working space both in Gainesville and at the UF/IFAS Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred.
“We will build a center for intellectual and practical progress toward plant improvement that is based primarily on Florida crops – with an initial emphasis on greening — given that industry’s urgent need for citrus greening disease solutions,” Triplett adds.
For more at the Crop Transformation Center, continue reading at blogs.ifas.ufl.edu.
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