TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (RFD News) — The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says a newly approved rootstock could offer Florida citrus growers another tool in the fight against citrus greening disease. The disease has devastated Florida’s citrus industry over the past two decades, dramatically reducing production across the state.
Cora Mandy with the EPA says the impact on growers has been significant.
“It has destroyed more than 90% of Florida’s citrus production over the past two decades,” Mandy explains. “So, if you want to take a look at the numbers here, at the industry’s peak in 2003 to 2004, growers produced 292 million boxes of citrus. Now today’s harvest is 5% of that total. So the industry has just faced extraordinary pressure.”
The EPA recently approved a rootstock designed to help citrus trees better withstand the disease. Mandy says the industry has spent years searching for more effective ways to combat citrus greening.
“There has not been a tool out there for farmers to be able to combat this disease, and this really offers a great new option for citrus farmers to combat this bacterial infection,” Mandy continues. “So what it does is it makes edits to the tree’s own existing genes. It disrupts the interaction between citrus plants and the bacteria that causes the greening that makes the harvest not viable.”
Last year, Florida lawmakers approved $140 million to help revitalize the state’s citrus industry, with much of the funding supporting citrus research and field trials.
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