Immokalee’s agriculture and science center struts its stuff
IMMOKALEE — Southwest Florida Research & Education Center, the region’s powerhouse for agriculture science, is enjoying a renaissance.
The center north of Immokalee was on the verge of closing three years ago, until farmers and ranchers saw the risk to their industry. They flexed their political muscle, and things started changing.
On March 29, the center showed off the fruits of these labors at an open house.
Nearly 200 people — ranging from working ag professionals to retirees from all walks of life — attended.
They took tractor-driven tram tours in the center’s groves and fields, watched lab demonstrations and tucked in a barbecue chicken lunch with all the trimmings.
“I was a science teacher,” said Linda Merschtina, a New Jersey retiree who now lives a good part of the year in Cape Coral. “The labs, the equipment are state-ofthe-art.” She listened with interest to scientists describing their experiments in vegetable production: “We have a garden in New Jersey, but we haven’t figured it out here, yet.”
The 31-year-old center, situated on 320 acres, serves growers, farmers and other agribusiness clients in Lee, Collier, Hendry, Glades and Charlotte counties.
It’s part of the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences network of research, extension and teaching programs — and a key player in keeping the region’s citrus and vegetable industries sustainable and profitable.
Especially crucial is helping the citrus industry in its battle to stay productive with so much of the crop afflicted with the citrus greening disease, which causes fruit to drop prematurely.
On the tram tour, center citrus production manager Tim Gast noted a block of Valencia citrus trees “look relatively healthy, because we apply a lot of micronutrients to them.”