By Rob Gilbert, ragilber@ufl.edu
Last month I went to Lake Alfred for a look at the future of the citrus industry. You’ll like what I saw.
BREEDING EFFORTS
What I saw first was a lab focused on finding an HLB-tolerant tree that has doubled in size since my last visit to the Citrus Research and Education Center. Nian Wang can produce twice as many gene-edited seedlings as he could a year ago, thanks to investments from the University of Florida and the Florida Department of Citrus to expand the lab, buy equipment and hire more scientists.
Next, I saw the future in a research grove and in an early-career researcher. John Chater joined the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) two years ago and has hundreds of trees in the field so he can assess which ones perform best. Having him on the citrus breeding team makes it more likely that we’ll make the best selections of promising cultivars.
I toured the grove with Chater and plant breeders Jude Grosser, Fred Gmitter and Manjul Dutt. The trees looked like the citrus trees of 20 years ago. Healthy trees don’t necessarily mean profitable ones, but it’s the first hurdle to clear. Chater’s enthusiasm for the science and his laser focus on delivering solutions to growers make me optimistic that the best of Gmitter and Grosser’s work will get to your groves as quickly as we can scientifically validate the selections.
COMMUNICATING WITH CRDF
The same day I visited the lab and grove, I spoke to the future of the industry in a meeting that Citrus Research and Development Foundation (CRDF) Chief Operating Officer Rick Dantzler arranged with Morgan Porter and Aaron Himrod.
Porter chairs the CRDF board of directors, and Himrod chairs CRDF’s Research Management Committee. They’re both growers who want to continue to be growers 10, 20 or even 30 years from now.
CRDF has been a bridge to channel your investments into citrus science. I am grateful for the support that has helped UF/IFAS advance its knowledge of irrigation and fertilization in infected groves, develop promising new varieties and better understand how to kill the bacteria that causes greening.
Yet production has continued to decline, so I expected direct and frank talk, and I got it. I understand the industry’s frustration with the pace of science. While I can’t accelerate that pace, I can and have expanded operations so that we can do more of it as we seek solutions for your groves.
As I consider how to marshal our resources to continue to fight HLB, it’s critical that I see what’s happening in the field and hear key industry leaders’ reaction to it.
Much attention has been focused on Ute Albrecht’s work on trunk injection. Dantzler, Porter and Himrod see great hope in injections and asked for administrators like me to fast-track her work. They also asked for more Albrechts to work on more antibiotics — even if we have to divert resources from elsewhere — because that’s what they see as the best bet for solvency until we have resistant trees.
SOLID SCIENCE
As much as I understand the need for speed, our greatest value is to be a trusted scientific source. While Albrecht’s work is promising, she is the first to acknowledge that there can be downsides, and she’ll cover some of that in next month’s issue.
Solid science takes time, but it protects you from choices that could ultimately cost you time (and money) as you work toward a healthy, profitable grove in the era of HLB.
Meanwhile, I will continue to support Albrecht, Chater and our entire citrus research team. And I will continue to visit with Dantzler, Porter, Himrod and you for a two-way conversation about the future of the industry.
Rob Gilbert is the University of Florida’s interim senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources and leader of UF/IFAS.
Editor’s note: J. Scott Angle will be returning to this position in September 2024.
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