While Uzbekistan is different than West Texas in terms of structure, history and climate, farming isn’t.
“It’s funny how just talking farming, we can all face the same challenges regardless of geographic location,” said Lloyd Arthur, Crosby County producer. “ They have some challenges we don’t, obviously, and vice versa, but at the end of the day farmers can find common ground with other farmers no matter where any of us come from.”
Uzbekistan has an arid climate similar to West Texas; however, it typically doesn’t get hotter than 80 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer with colder winters. Before USSR was dissolved in 1991, 100% of Uzbekistan crops were cotton. Today it’s 80%.
Most of Uzbekistan cotton is hand picked. The supply chain is “in-house” in their country, as harvested cotton is processed, milled and spun all within Uzbekistan.
“They do have more water than we do — most of it is flood irrigation,” added Arthur. “ I showed them my drip irrigation and how we have to conserve water out here in West Texas.”
The Uzbekistan delegation was brought out to our part of the world by Mauricio Ulloa, Ph.D., research geneticist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service (ARS), who has been collaborating with Uzbekistan since 2007.
The Uzbekistan delegation gifted Lloyd Arthur with tokens from their country.
ARS partners with the Uzbekistan Center of Genomics and Bioinformatics on cooperative research projects to control and identify resistance to the highly contagious Fusarium wilt pathogen, which threatens cotton production in both countries. The partnership also includes work identifying and developing resilient gerplasm to plant stress and diseases.
“While I have been in collaboration with most of these men for many years, this was their first time to come visit,” Ulloa said. “It was a great experience to be able to show them cotton in this part of the world. We appreciate Lloyd for showing us his farm, farm equipment, and sharing his farming practices with us.”