Droughts have a devastating effect on farms. In Missouri and most of the world, droughts are the leading cause of crop failure. They increase consumer costs, kill livestock, reduce crop yields, and trigger wildfires and dust storms. They also can cause malnutrition and famine, social unrest and political instability.
(Media-Newswire.com) - Droughts have a devastating effect on farms. In Missouri and most of the world, droughts are the leading cause of crop failure. They increase consumer costs, kill livestock, reduce crop yields, and trigger wildfires and dust storms.
They also can cause malnutrition and famine, social unrest and political instability.Researchers in the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources ( CAFNR ) recently received a $1,558,125 grant to construct drought simulators that enable the scientists to study how reduced water availability affects plants and crop productivity.
The Missouri Life Sciences Research Board grant funds the construction of four mobile rain shelters, which researchers can use to vary the amount of water that test plants receive, simulating everything from short dry spells to persistent and severe drought conditions. Research on the moveThe shelters look like 50-by-100-foot greenhouses on railroad tracks.
They move away from test plants when the weather is sunny and cover the plots when rain approaches. Two shelters will be built at CAFNR’s Bradford Research and Extension Center east of Columbia; the first is scheduled to be completed in late 2009. A third shelter will be built at the Delta Research Center, Portageville, in the southeastern part of Missouri.
The fourth shelter will be located at the Horticulture and Agroforestry Research Center, New Franklin.The locations represent the varied environments, crop species and soil types that are agriculturally important to the state. This strategic placement allows researchers to accommodate any crop, forage and turf species grown in Missouri and surrounding states.
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