New Crops Get Green Thumbs Up

Agriculture, Business News/Analysis, Farming/Growing, Federal Agency/Executive Branch, Feedstock, Feedstocks, Field/Orchard/Plantation Crops/Residues, Infrastructure, R & D Focus, South America, South Carolina

July 9, 2014

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(GreenvilleOnline) Officials at Clemson have released 21 new crop varieties that will help meet the needs of farmers growing food, fiber and fuels needed by South Carolina’s economy.
These varieties include four Roundup Ready varieties of soybeans approved by the S.C. Crop Improvement Association Review Board, nine varieties of sorghum for bioenergy and eight new cotton varieties.
The new varieties were jointly released by the with U.S. Department of Agriculture research center in Florence and Clemson.
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Among the factors in developing new plants are yield potential, disease resistance, planting date, maturity, lodging resistance, tolerance to nematodes and other agronomic factors. Rarely is there one variety perfect for all production systems.
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The new sorghum varieties are bred for bioenergy. They grow more of the green parts of the plant, which can be chemically converted to make fuel including ethanol and electricity. The new varieties are being licensed to South American growers, who are world leaders in biofuel production.
The sorghum was developed at the Clemson Pee Dee Research and Education Center in Florence by Advanced Plant Technology program leader and plant breeder Stephen Kresovich. APT researchers blend traditional plant breeding and molecular genetics into a comprehensive approach to improve crop yields and quality. READ MORE

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