(upbeat music)
-: We all know how important agriculture is to Mississippi
and the surrounding region and when you think
about agriculture in this region the image that comes
to mind, might be one of a field, white
with cotton, as far as the eye can see.
Almost, kind of like, Christmas in July.
Now, most of us also probably know
that the socks we take off before we get into bed
and the sheets we crawl into, those are made of cotton.
But did you know that cottonseed is an important part
of animal feed and thus our food supply or that cottonseed
oil is an important component in the manufacturing process
of a plethora of products, ranging from soaps, oils,
cosmetics and even pharmaceuticals?
So, clearly cotton has an important role
in the global economy and that role is only going
to increase as global population surges
to nearly 10 billion people by 2050.
That's many more stomachs that need to be fed,
many more feet that need socks
and many more beds that need sheets.
Unfortunately, the development of nearly 250 herbicide
resistant weed species challenges our ability
to produce for this growing world.
And it comes at a time where we're losing one
of agriculture's most oldest and trusted tools,
the use of chemical herbicides for weed control.
And so in response the bio-tech community has released
new weed control technologies based on the use
of synthetic plant hormones, that's right, plant hormones
can actually be used as an effective means of weed control.
However, much like when we were young,
those hormones are potent and they do just as good of a job
at killing and injuring off-target cotton
as they do their intended audience or weed species.
Further complicating the issue is the fact that cotton
responds differently to low concentrations of these
synthetic hormones depending on the growth stage at exposure
and these exposure events can happen all throughout the
growth season and so the objective of my work is
to determine the cotton growth stage most susceptible
to injury and yield effects from low concentrations
of these synthetic plant hormones.
And what we find is interesting,
it appears that younger cotton in general is more
susceptible to injury and compensatory yield effects
from low concentrations of these plant hormones,
among other research details and so what this allows us
to do is better advise crop producers in their adoption
of these new technologies, as they try
to produce happy healthy cotton and avoid the
nightmare of crazy hormonal cotton.
What this means for the end-producer is that we can keep
our food supply, food and fiber supply high
and we can keep prices for cotton-based products low
as we move forward in our mission to protect
our global food and fiber supply
and feed and clothe a growing world starting right here
at Mississippi State.
Thank you.