MISSOURI'S RICE RESEARCH FARM ONE OF TWO IN NATION

GLENNONVILLE, Mo. The Missouri Rice Research Farm near Glennonville was officially dedicated last week.

"This kind of self-help project and the cooperation among so many different agencies and people will make us competitive in the world market," Charles Kruse, director of the Missouri Department of Agriculture, told the crowd of about 100 people who gathered Friday under a large tent in the center of the 30-acre research plot.

The remarks were echoed by Chuck Wilson of the National Rice Council and an official of Riceland Foods of Corning, Ark., which processes a lot of the rice grown in this area."Missouri ranks in the top 10 in every area of agriculture and the Bootheel produces 25 percent of that. It is difficult for people in other parts of the country to realize what we have here, Kruse said. "There is almost no place else in the country that has the unlimited water supply that we do, that allows us to flip a switch see hundreds of gallons of water come up out of the ground."The new facility is only the second farmer-owned rice research facility in the U.S. The other one is in California.

The center was paid for by a voluntary checkoff program which was started by the Missouri Rice Research and Merchandising Council in 1984.

"It was really hard to find the right spot that would meet all our requirements," said Larry Riley of Bernie, president of the Missouri Rice Research and Merchandising Council.The farm is located off Highway J, east of Glennonville on prime rice production soil, centrally located and readily accessible to all of Missouri's rice growers.Research on the plots of the field will be conducted under controlled conditions by the University of Missouri-Columbia, Southeast Missouri State University and the Delta Research Center.Current research on rice varieties and rice weed control will be moved to the facility from present sites in farm fields in Butler and Stoddard counties. New research will include rotation of rice with various crops, rice disease and insect controls, soil fertility, growth regulators, irrigation efficiency, furrow irrigation practices, red rice control in rotation crops, alternate crops such as wild rice and others.

The first rice was grown in Southeast Missouri in 1911 on one acre by George Begley north of Dudley. Last year more than 90,000 acres of rice was planted producing a crop worth about $34 million.

Other officials participating in the dedication included Dr. Roger Mitchell, dean of the College of Agriculture of the University of Missouri. Also in attendance were J.O. Snowden, dean of the College of Science and Technology, and Dr. Michael Aide, chairman of the Department of Agriculture, Southeast Missouri State University.