Research & Science Top Citrus Priorities

Haylie Shipp

Well often times when we look at the folks that are elected to represent us, they may not have that background in agriculture that we wish they had. That is where we get to step up and speak up. Matt Joyner is with Florida Citrus Mutual. I spoke with him recently about some of what his team is working on at the legislative level in Florida…

“We worked on some initiatives this past session to make sure that we’re funding updated science to inform those best management practices not just for citrus but for other commodities here in the state. But that’s one thing that continues to be critical to the state of Florida and critical to ag producers who, as you know, are always the best environmental stewards of the land that they depend on.”

Funding research initiatives, he says, is always a top priority…

“And as an industry that’s battling really one of the…it is the worst disease known to citrus, it’s been in China and other places around the world, nobody’s ever found a cure for citrus greening. We’re working hard on that, but we know that the nutritional requirements of our trees differ from the research that was done pre-greening. And so it’s been important to us an industry to make sure that we have that science updated so that we know what those levels are to keep us productive and to make sure that we’re not contributors to any sort of runoff or other things.”

Again Matt Joyner with Florida Citrus Mutual.