find they must invest in growing technology

By

NITA MCCANN

and CHRISTIAN SCHMIDT

The Natchez Democrat

The latest battles in the farming world aren’t just taking place in the fields or in the markets &045; they’re in the labs.

No change has affected agriculture as drastically in the last few years as genetically engineered crops that are more resistant to pesticides. These crops, which have been implanted with extra genes in order to give them specific desirable traits, have raised farmer’s profits.

That resistance to pesticides means farmers can effectively kill off weeds and grasses without hurting crops, meaning yields are higher and more profitable crops which allow farmers to keep their businesses alive.

What’s good for farming could be good news for the economy as a whole. The latest available figures show that agriculture has a more than $34 million impact on the Miss-Lou’s economy.

Every dollar made from producing crops results in an estimated $1.72 being paid to everything from farm workers to local businesses, according to agribusiness experts at Louisiana State University.

Obstacles to overcome

At the same time, the low prices farmers expect for their crops is a factor &045; except for soybeans,

with prices up from this time last year.

Cotton is 46.29 cents per pound, corn is $2.51 per bushel and soybeans are $6.78 per bushel compared to 56.59 cents for cotton, $2.90 for corn and $6.80 for soybeans a year ago.

Rain is also below average for the year to date. Only 22.43 inches had fallen in the area since the start of the year as of Friday, according to Accuweather.

That’s compared to 31.25 inches for the same period in an average year and 35.30 for that period last year.

&uot;Production costs are up &045; insect control, fuel costs &045; and market (prices) are still on the low side,&uot; said Bill Maily, area agent in agronomy for the Mississippi State Cooperative Extension Service. &uot;Equipment costs are rising, too. You can easily pay $80,000 to $100,000 for a combine.&uot;

&uot;We’ve definitely have had to make more payments to farmers (in recent years) because crop prices are lower,&uot; said Stacy McKay of Adams County’s U.S. Farm Service Agency office.

David Waide, president of Mississippi’s Farm Bureau Federation, said energy prices are boosting fertilizer prices for farmers.

He also cited trade agreements that favor foreign producers as putting American farmers at an economic disadvantage.

The science of agriculture

That means farmers have to use whatever means they can to make farming profitable, and the latest wave of technology is genetically engineered crops. Concordia Parish County Agent Glen Daniels said these plants are in wide use in the parish.

&uot;Most farmers are using these technologies,&uot; Daniels said. &uot;If we have a wet period in the season, weeds and grasses can get in the fields and take away from the plants. But with this, the farmers can come in and spray early and get rid of the pests.&uot;

Nearly all of the soybeans, most of the cotton and nearly half of the corn grown in the United States last year was genetically engineered, according to data from the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology.

The Pew Initiative is a non-profit group affiliated with the University of Richmond.

Bt genes, which allow corn plants to create a protein found in Bacillus thuringiensis, a soil bacterium that can kill most insects, have allowed farmers to lower their use of other pesticides.

&uot;It’s cheaper to pay the fee for new technologies than to spray maybe 10 times for bugs,&uot; Maily said, adding &uot;it’s also safer in the fact that the farmers don’t have to handle chemicals as much as they did in the past.&uot;

The number of insect- and disease-resistant varieties has multiplied greatly just in the last five to 10 years, Maily said.

&uot;With the corn and cotton, we’re seeing the Bt gene put in to control tobacco budworms and other pests,&uot; Daniels said.

Another popular gene addition is the Roundup ready gene, which gives plants &045; soybeans in particular &045; a greater resistance to the herbicide Roundup, one of the more popular herbicides used in agriculture.

This means that farmers can use higher amounts of the herbicide to kill weeds and grasses without endangering the crop, something Daniels has seen first-hand in the fields.

&uot;This is giving us a new way to get weeds for soybean, corn and cotton fields,&uot; Daniels said. &uot;We can control Johnson grass and weeds. A lot of fields are a lot cleaner than they used to be.&uot;

Proponents of the Roundup ready gene &045; including Monsanto, the company that makes Roundup &045; have said that this gene allows farmers to move away from using other herbicides that present more long-term problems for the ecosystem.

Opponents of genetically engineered products say there is insufficient evidence about the effects these products can have on humans.

They also say these genes could be transferred to other plants, making a new wave of pesticide-resistant weeds to be dealt with.

Growing smarter

Farmers, however, aren’t just relying on genetically engineered crops to make ends meet.

More efficient equipment has resulted in less crop loss during harvest, &uot;which allows for less trips across the fields to complete the harvest of the crops, Š using less fuel and less manpower to accomplish the same goals,&uot; Maily said.

Farmers’ other cost-saving measures include reduced-till practices and faithful equipment maintenance.

That includes some maintenance, such as more frequent air filter changes and tire pressure checks, that save energy, Waide said.

Cliff Merritt, president of Louisiana Central Bank in Vidalia, said farmers who have stayed in business despite the above obstacles are good farm loan risks.

That’s because they’ve educated themselves on the above technologies and practices and use them to the fullest, Merritt said.

&uot;The people that remained in farming are fairly savvy, knowledgeable and diversified with a lot of technology,&uot; Merritt said.

&uot;A farmer has to be careful of his expenses. After all, he puts a lot at risk every year.&uot;