US Secretary of Agriculture Visits Louisiana Sugarcane Industry, Announces Support for LSU Research
By Anna Holmes
Louisiana Farm Bureau News
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins visited Louisiana’s sugarcane industry Friday, touring the Louisiana Sugar Cane Cooperative (LASUCA) in St. Martin Parish and meeting with Gov. Jeff Landry, Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry Mike Strain, Louisiana Farm Bureau President Richard Fontenot and industry leaders to discuss the state’s agricultural economy and challenges facing farmers.
Rollins highlighted the importance of Louisiana’s sugarcane industry, which supports approximately 17,000 jobs and has a $4 billion economic impact on the state. She also noted that Louisiana is the nation’s top sugarcane-producing state.
“It’s really inspiring to see it firsthand,” Rollins said after touring the mill, which she noted has been milling sugarcane for more than a century.
The biggest announcement of the visit came when Rollins said the USDA will award $500,000 in rapid-response funding to Louisiana State University to support research into the pasture mealybug.
Rollins said USDA is working with state and local partners on a coordinated response to the pest, including improving detection and diagnostics, accelerating scientific research, strengthening communication and developing management and mitigation strategies. Rollins also announced that the pasture mealybug has been designated a priority pest for the upcoming fiscal year.
Through the funding, LSU will collaborate with the University of Florida and USDA’s Agricultural Research Service at its Sugarcane Research Unit in Houma to develop strategies to address the pest, including insecticide efficacy trials in Louisiana.
John Hebert, manager of LASUCA, said the pasture mealybug has been a major concern for the sugarcane industry.
“Basically, everyone in the industry this year has had a pit in their stomach over what to expect,” Hebert said. However, he added that early results have been encouraging, with satisfactory sugar numbers coming from the mill.
Rollins said those results provide some relief for growers but that the work to combat the pest will continue.
“The great news is that the sugarcane — the sugar is beautiful coming out of it, not really affected,” Rollins said. “So I know that gives everyone a deep breath, a little bit of relief, but we will keep battling.”
Discussion also focused on improving farm profitability, including efforts to address high input and labor costs. Rollins highlighted recent increases in commodity prices and pointed to new fertilizer projects in Louisiana as part of efforts to bring more agricultural input production back to the United States.
Landry emphasized the vital role agriculture plays in both the state’s economy and the nation’s security.
“What Americans should always remember is that a country that cannot feed itself cannot defend itself,” Landry said. He also shared his personal connection to the St. Martin Parish mill, where he said one of his first jobs was hauling sugarcane.