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$400K grant to kick off sweet potato program

By Wes Clement/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Saturday, October 17, 2009 2:15 AM CDT

Gov. Mike Beebe presented University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff Chancellor Lawrence A. Davis Jr. a $400,000 check Friday for the start of a program to benefit sweet potato growers in the eastern part of the state.

Gov. Mike Beebe smiles and listens with UAPB Chancellor Lawrence A. Davis Jr. as Sen. Hank Wilkins introduces the Gov. Beebe as the guest speaker and presenter of $400,000 for the sweet potatoe seed program Thursday afternoon at UAPB. Pine Bluff Commercial/Ralph Fitzgerald

The Sweet Potato Seed Program at UAPB is to be a partnership with local farmers to cultivate first generation, virus-free slips (sprouts) used to achieve higher sweet potato yields. The slips, grown by a handful of partner farmers, will be sold to sweet potato growers throughout eastern Arkansas.

“The G1’s (first generation seeds) are producing about 600 bushels per acre,” Dr. Leslie Glover, UAPB associate dean for outreach and technology transfer said. “G4’s are producing about 400 bushels. You’ve lost about a third of the yield going from one generation to the next to the next.”

Beebe said the crop is very beneficial to many smaller growers who would otherwise struggle to break even with traditional row crops.

“UAPB has done some things differently,” Beebe said. “They have figured out some niches no one else has figured out. They have created some areas of expertise that nobody else was actually providing, and now we have a brand new one.”

“Small steps,” Beebe said. “Is this going to create 10,000 jobs? No. Is this going to create 2,000 jobs? No. If we create 200 it’s a good deal, then we go find another area and create 200 more.”

Sweet potatoes are susceptible to viruses and mutate quickly, according to Dr. James Garner, interim dean for the UAPB School of Agriculture. Those characteristics can significantly lower yields, he said.

“It’s like any other crop,” Floyd Morrow, a sweet potato farmer from Phillips County said. “The better your seeds, the better your crop. We plant G1’s and G2’s now. Well, the G1’s produce a better sweet potato than the G2’s, yet the G2’s are acceptable.” He said farmers typically do not plant sweet potato seeds past the third generation.

Beebe presented the check on behalf of Arkansas Works Summit, an effort that emphasizes the relationship between education and economic development.

A number of state legislators, city and county officials and local education officials attended the presentation at UAPB.

“We didn’t just start this yesterday,” Glover said. “We’ve been working on this for a long time and it’s finally coming to fruition.”

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