VIDALIA — A new crop year has rolled around, and it’s time to renew pesticide certifications and choose which varieties to plant.

The Concordia Parish 2010 Crop Production Meeting and Pesticide Recertification will be 8:15 a.m. to 2:35 p.m. Friday at Monterey Baptist Church.

“It’s going to be a really good meeting,” Concordia Parish Extension Service Director Glen Daniels said. “We’re going to review all of the technological updates that have happened. It will be a chance to get a wealth of information at this meeting.”

At the meeting, the presenters will discuss the new varieties of soybeans that are available, and will make recommendations for corn and soybeans for the area.

“We are getting a lot of round-up ready beans in this area,” Daniels said. “We will discuss how to control (disease and pests) with these roundup-ready beans.”

One of the discussions that will be hosted at the meeting will address problems that have manifested with irrigation wells lately.

“We have had a problem with irrigated wells pumping salt water, so we will tell them how they can tell if their wells are pumping salt,” Daniels said.

One portion of the meeting Daniels said he expects to see heightened interest in this year is the afternoon rice production presentations.

“We are going to have an increase in rice acreage,” Daniels said. “I also expect to see some new farmers come into rice production.”

The reason he expects to see increased rice production is because rice prices are higher, Daniels said.

“It’s a new year, a new start,” he said.