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By Lana Robinson
Field Editor
In the midst of all the recent political campaigns, cotton growers in the Lower Rio Grande Valley have been working to get out the vote in a referendum that will determine whether or not the LRGV will reinstitute a boll weevil eradication program in that region. Postmark deadline for the ballots sent out Oct. 22 is Nov. 8.
Dr. Charles Allen, program director for the Texas Boll Weevil Foundation, said the decision is "critical."
"It's become more and more plain to those of us who are watching the program pretty carefully that we probably have a lot more concern about migration, particularly as the numbers go down in these adjacent zones," said Allen. "It's more important than we ever thought before. These weevils are moving a long way, and it's getting to the point that we can't finish jobs in some of these neighboring zones. One of the things that you can do, though, is you can bring those weevil numbers down in these areas where there's weevil movement back in. That has resulted in some pretty sizeable yield increases in the northern part of the state and a lot more cotton running through the cotton gin."
Valley producers, under competitive pressure with producers to the north and south who have highly successful boll weevil eradication programs, are giving eradication in their zone a second look. Still, some growers blame a previous boll weevil eradication program for a disastrous crop in 1995. They argue that the program's insecticide sprays killed beneficial insects, which allowed beet armyworms to ravage their crops unchallenged.
The Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation has since been revamped and put under the auspices of the Texas Department of Agriculture. Successes in other parts of Texas and New Mexico have caused local growers to reconsider the program. Some suggest the programs have been successful because of local grower steering committees who have taken ownership of the program and made necessary adjustments to make the program work.
Texas Cooperative Extension, the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation and several cotton and grain producers organizations held 10 educational meetings in the LRGV in October. Good turnout was reported.
Allen acknowledged that another obstacle in the Valley in the past is that farmers felt a program was futile because weevils from Mexican cotton fields, where there was no eradication effort, could too easily migrate across the border and sabotage the program here. However, he noted that the northern Mexican state of Tamaulipas implemented a state and federal boll weevil eradication program last spring and other states in Mexico are following suit.
"They ran a program on about 5,000 acres of cotton. The closest fields are 15 miles south of the Valley. All the cotton in Northern Mexico is in boll weevil eradication. Also, all the cotton is in pink bollworm eradication. They're running a dual program. The states of Coahuila and Durango are about to start programs there," Allen reported.
Allen said because the climatic conditions of the Valley are much like that of Mexico and Central America, where boll weevils developed, eradication in this zone will likely be more challenging than other parts of the state.
"We've got a pretty good chore cut out for us, but I think we can make a big difference in what it takes to produce a bale of cotton down there. It's going to take some time. We're not going to be able to jump in there in a year or two years and do the job. The budget calls for five years of active eradication, and there will probably be a little bit of clean up after that and then some maintenance following that to protect the Valley and maybe the rest of the U.S. from possible reinfestation," he said.
Specifically, the eradication process for the Rio Grande Valley, if approved, is three-pronged: a diapause phase begins in the first year and is timed to support beneficial insects; a season-long phase is planned for the following four years; and a post-eradication (maintenance) effort will be conducted to eradicate the last remaining weevils and monitor for reinfestation.
Global Positioning System (GPS) and computers would be used to map all fields. Detection tools would include lure and kill-strip traps. GPS-equipped airplanes and helicopters would aerially apply ULV Malathion. Areas not accessible by aircraft would have chemicals applied by mist-blowers mounted on pickup trucks.
The Lower Rio Grande Valley and the Northern Blacklands (which stretches from Waco through Dallas and up to Texarkana) zones are the only two cotton-producing regions in the U.S. without an eradication program, Allen said. Both have requested a referendum.
Planners are hoping for a referendum in the Northern Blacklands by December 2004 or January 2005.
If two-thirds of the Valley's cotton growers and landlords, or a majority of acreage representatives vote by Nov. 8 to revive the program, it will begin in 2005. The outcome will be announced at a news conference Nov. 17.
