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THE STRUCTURE MOVING ACROSS THIS FIELD IS DESIGNED TO SIMULATE DROUGHT
CONDITIONS ON THESE TEST CROPS LOCATED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI’S BRADFORD
RESEARCH AND EXTENSION CENTER SOT-----------------(0:14)------------------
Felix Fritschi MU Plant Sciences Assistant
Professor “Drought is the most important yield limiting
factor around the world and it’s a problem many
places.” THE DROUGHT SIMULATORS ARE ESSENTIALLY
MOBILE GREENHOUSES MEASURING 50 BY 100 FEET.
THE TWO SIMULATORS ARE MOUNTED ON RAILROAD TRACKS, SO THEY CAN BE
POSITIONED TO COVER COMMERCIALLY IMPORTANT CROPS LIKE SOYBEAN AND CORN
DURING RAINY WEATHER … THEN MOVED AWAY TO EXPOSE THE PLANTS DURING DRY, SUNNY
CONDITIONS. SOT----------------------------------
NO SUPER FELIX AGAIN “With this facility, we can control when
the plants experience water stress.”
MU RESEARCHERS IN THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE, FOOD AND NATURAL
RESOURCES STUDY THE RESULTS OF THESE CONTROLLED CONDITIONS TO HELP DEVELOP
CROPS MORE TOLERANT OF WATER SHORTAGES.
SOT-----------------(1:00)------------------ Robert Sharp
MU Plant Sciences Professor “We’re not going to be able to make agricultural
crop plants grow in a desert environment. What we’re
trying to do is understand how we can improve crop
performance under conditions of limited water.” ROBERT SHARP FOCUSES HIS RESEARCH ON
THE ROOT SYSTEMS OF PLANTS AND THEIR IMPORTANCE TO A PLANT’S GROWTH AND ITS
ABILITY TO WEATHER DRY CONDITIONS. SOT-------------------------------------------
NO SUPER ROBERT AGAIN “Root systems are very important, they’ve
been very much understudied because they’re very
difficult to study. You’ve got to be able to get those
roots through the dry soil and down into the moist soil
and if we can do that, we can substantially improve
plant performance.”
MU RESEARCHERS SAY THE DROUGHT SIMULATORS ALLOW FOR IN-DEPTH TESTING
UNDER REAL WORLD CONDITIONS. SOT-------------------------------------------
NO SUPER ROBERT AGAIN “So in the field plants are subjected to
this whole range of environmental stresses and
it’s necessary to move from the lab into the field
to address that complexity.”
THIS RESEARCH IS VITAL DUE TO THE DEVASTATING EFFECTS OF DROUGHT AND THE
EVER GROWING COMPETITION FOR FRESH WATER.
KENT FADDIS/REPORTING (2:02)
IN COLUMBIA, KENT FADDIS REPORTING.