Main Articles Listing: General College News 15. UA Ag Centers Source: ARIZONA DAILY STAR Monday , August 2, 2004 Edition: FINAL, Section: NEWS, Page: A1 The UA is preparing for its biggest move of farming operations in 20 years to make way for urban development. Nearly 200 acres that have sustained cotton and other crops for a half-century have now grown into a valuable commodity - prime Marana real estate that will go to auction within the current school year, University of Arizona officials confirmed. The movement of UA farms to make room for expanding communities is a dance about as old as Arizona's statehood. But the pressures on farming operations are increasing as nearly as many people are projected to move into Arizona in the next 15 years than did in its first 80. While farms are part of Arizona's history, the increasingly high-tech nature of agriculture research is as essential to Arizona's economy and future as ever - and possibly more so. Some signs of change: * Agricultural researchers are increasingly dividing their time between farm fields and high-tech labs, working alongside researchers in other fields. * UA experts who have long studied ways to make food cheaper and cultivate growth in hostile climates now are also providing information they hope will help find cures for cancer and solve other problems of human disease and health. * Some of the most cutting-edge research is focused on producing quality food using less land. Convenient farm facilities are essential, said Regents professor Vicki Chandler, who has built an international reputation unlocking the genetic secrets of corn. As director of the UA's Institute for Biomedical Science and Biotechnology, she oversees the $65 million Thomas W. Keating Bioresearch Building, which will be home to a variety of about 300 researchers and staffers north of campus when it opens in December 2005. She needs six acres of farmland for her research program. "I can't have 20 researchers driving back and forth to Phoenix every day. You need to have farms that are nearby and easily accessible to the laboratories," she said. "A lot of people doing genetics need to grow the plants. Both the fields and the greenhouse facilities are crucial for us to be competitive." That kind of research helps make the UA's College of Agriculture one of the most competitive in the nation. In terms of competitive dollars, the college consistently ranks fourth or fifth in the nation, said C. Colin Kaltenbach, vice dean and director of the Agriculture Experiment Station. The college has a $47 million budget that is one of the largest at the UA and the faculty brings in $45 million to $50 million in outside grants, Kaltenbach said. The Ag Endowment Fund is about $17 million, but most of the dollars are obligated to pay bonds used to purchase and develop agriculture properties. The UA is especially well-positioned as one of the nation's top research institutions with colleges of agriculture, medicine and pharmacy on the same campus. The UA controls and uses about 180,000 acres, in large part because of the V Bar V Ranch near Camp Verde and the Santa Rita Experimental Range. But the land is only part of agriculture study. "People think of agriculture as that 2 percent out there on the land but that's just the foundation of the house," Kaltenbach said. "We're a very diverse college. We're not just land and cattle and crops." Today the college has about 2,500 undergraduates and graduate students preparing for careers in "agribusiness, government, public service agencies, retail and service industries, human health institutions, the food service and processing industry, financial institutions, youth development agencies, conservation and environmental organizations, farming and ranching, research, extension, communication and education," according to the college's Web site. Kaltenbach calculates the production and distribution of food - from field to plate - to account for about 22 percent of the nation's work force. "Sometimes, when land grant is mentioned, it takes people's thinking into the past," Provost George Davis said. But the UA's College of Agriculture continues to help the state through its interplay of research, teaching and extension and outreach. "I personally feel that here in the 21st century, the traditional view of land grant being equal to agriculture and engineering, is too restricted. Instead, we see through the model of agriculture the opportunities to apply research to other opportunities and problems," he said. The land-grant system began in 1862 when the federal government gave states - and later, territories such as Arizona - public lands and dollars for colleges that would make higher education practical and available to the general public. That and the Hatch Act of 1887, which created the agricultural experiment station program - essentially its agriculture operations - provided most of the UA's seed money. Charlotte Kuh, the deputy executive director of the Policy and Global Affairs division at the National Research Council in Washington, D.C., said she sees land grant institutions "evolving quite rapidly." But while more research is done at cellular levels in the lab, she said, "there comes a point where you have to leave the test tube and go to the farm. I don't see the need for farms to go away anytime soon." The closest farm for most UA researchers, the 185-acre Campus Agriculture Center, sits on some of the most coveted land in Tucson - three miles north of the main campus and a stone's throw from some of the Foothills' toniest shopping areas. UA acquired the first section of that land nearly 100 years ago when Tucson counted about 13,100 residents. "They'd love to get their hands on it," Joel Valdez, UA's senior vice president for business affairs, said of developers. "Everybody's got all kinds of ideas - big malls and shopping and housing and all kinds of things," said Valdez. Although the idea was researched years ago, UA officials now say they don't see the UA moving because the land is too valuable to UA's teaching and research. "Price is not going to drive our decision with the campus ag centers," Kaltenbach said. Bob Davis, vice president of CB Richard Ellis in Tucson, described interest in that land as exceedingly high. "Anyone in the business drools every time they pass it," he said. But UA planners think long range, Davis said, and research breakthroughs may one day cause that farm to be looked at in a different light. "Twenty-first-century science is different than 20th-century farming," he said, envisioning a world-class facility within reach of where University Medical Center plans to build a new cancer center on the former Tucson General Hospital grounds on North Campbell. It would require Board of Regents approval to sell that land. UA has accumulated parcels over the years through combinations of donations by growers or other beneficiaries and purchases. State law requires UA to sell land at auction to the highest bidder, but it is regents' policy that directs proceeds to the college endowment. The UA has made about $61 million in selling off land, Kaltenbach said. That money has been used or obligated to pay bonds for other agricultural lands and centers. None of the land involved with the current farms was part of the original land grant, Kaltenbach said. Shrinking farmland because of urbanization is an issue nationwide. The impact on land-grant institutions, Kaltenbach said, "varies from state to state. Some states where there's growth probably have some of the same issues we do." The UA acquired the Marana farm more than 50 years ago in response to grower interest; it paid for itself after four years of cotton sales. UA officials describe the land, less than a half-hour drive from campus, as an essential part of the college's "research, education and extension efforts." But more than 4,500 homes will start rising within a couple-mile radius within the next few years. Because it's so close to Interstate 10, Marana planners envision job-producing uses for the UA farm's future, and have heard a range of interest including a hospital and a private university. UA officials long considered that growth inevitable and are considering moving that operation northwest near Red Rock. "The land all the way around it is being sold. We see development coming and we think now is the appropriate time to try and relocate," Kaltenbach said. How much has changed: * For an idea of how much change is possible by 2020, when the state is poised to increase more than 50 percent to 8.6 million people, consider how much has changed in the past three decades, when the population tripled to 5.6 million: *UA used to grow citrus on the 40-acre Salt River Valley Citrus Station in Tempe where Arizona Mills, 1.2 million square feet of shopping and entertainment, now attracts millions each year. The citrus operations moved to Waddell in the early 1980s . *A lingerie warehouse is part of the commercial development over most of the 265-acre Cotton Research Center in Phoenix, just west of the Wyndham Buttes Resort. *UA farmed for decades on 160 acres in Mesa near Tempe until the city grew. * UA Mesa farmland today hosts a Wal-Mart and a vocational campus. The city worked with developers to save date palms and some original buildings. * Those research farms moved after an agricultural advisory committee appointed by the Board of Regents recommended in 1979 that the UA acquire new sites "remote from urban centers," according to the UA book "College of Agriculture: A Century of Discovery." Active UA Agricultural Centers Campus Agricultural Center, three miles north of UA campus. 4101 N. Campbell Ave. *This 185-acre center houses horse, sheep and cattle operations. Field research focuses on turf grass, crop protection, fruit variety trials, arid-adapted landscape plants, weed control, water conservation, production of plant-derived agricultural chemicals, irrigation engineering and soil science. Molecular biology research has increased the need for campus-based researchers to be near their animals and fields. Marana Agricultural Center, 28 miles north of the UA in Marana *Projects range from cotton management techniques and the testing of genetically altered cotton lines to evaluating sewage sludge applications, testing the survival of fish in irrigation canals and monitoring lightning strikes. West Campus Agricultural Center, five miles northwest of the UA. 2831 N. Freeway *This 72-acre farm includes a rebuilt Arizona State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and the aquaculture pathology complex was recently expanded to study viral and bacterial pathogens of farm-raised and wild shrimp. The center is also the main field site for USDA honey bee research. Santa Rita Experimental Range, 35 miles south of Tucson *The nation's oldest experimental range, research began in 1903 and today includes 50,811 acres. The range is used exclusively for ecological research and education, to develop information to manage semiarid rangelands for long-term productivity. The Maricopa Agricultural Center, known as Big MAC, four miles east of Maricopa. *This 2,100-acre experimental farm, acquired in January 1983, consolidates activities from the Cotton Research Center in Phoenix and the Mesa Experimental Farm in Mesa. The farm includes 1,460 tillable acres where researchers demonstrate the economic and practical potential of their discoveries. Fish, such as catfish and tilapia, are integrated with irrigated crop production. Citrus Agricultural Center, 25 miles northwest of Phoenix in Maricopa County, 14642 N. Perryville Road, Waddell *This 40-acre facility is used for research and also demonstrates the latest methods in growing and maintaining citrus, deciduous trees and vine crops. A pond is used to raise fish and for irrigation. The Yuma Agricultural Center has two sites; a Valley farm four miles west of Yuma and a Mesa Farm four miles south of the city. * Seven faculty members from five academic departments conduct research and outreach programs. Research includes the biology and management of insects, the biology and management of crop diseases, weed ecology and control, seed and crop physiology, and soil, water and nutrient management. The 274-acre Valley Farm includes a diversified range of crops, including cotton, small grains, and such vegetables as lettuce and broccoli. The 240-acre Mesa Farm is focused on citrus production. The V Bar V Ranch runs about 30 miles east from Camp Verde along the Mogollon Rim, between four and five miles in width. *This fully operating, working ranch is UA's newest agricultural center, acquired in 1995. Studies focus on three main areas: cow herd management; range and watershed activities, and wildlife interactions, particularly with elk. The ranch spans 77,000 acres; slightly more than 40 acres is private land, with the rest held under lease from the U.S. Forest Service. Safford Agricultural Center, just outside Safford *This 63-acre agricultural center has been a performance testing site for long-staple cotton for more than 30 years. Researchers also study its problem soils - both saline and alkaline - and saline well water. Source: University of Arizona * Contact reporter Inger Sandal at 573-4115 or at isandal@azstarnet.com - Updated: September 20, 2004 [e-Mail me the articles]    -     [Search our articles]    -     [contact us ]     return to media home