When the Texas Plant Protection Association gathers Dec. 4-5 for the 30th annual conference, farmers will be considering a handful of challenges as they begin making decisions for 2019 crops.

Presenters at the two-day conference will address many of those challenges.

TPPA Board Chairman Ray Smith, left, and President Dr. Kranthi Mandadi at the 2017 annual conference.

"This year we are very excited to bring in speakers who will highlight new innovations to advance a profitable agriculture future for Texas and beyond,” says TPPA President Kranthi Mandadi, Texas A & M AgriLife Research, Weslaco, Texas.

“These innovations span topics such as digital farming solutions, remote sensing/high-throughput phenotyping, harnessing crop microbiomes, and a primer on genome editing technologies. These are all excellent topics, and we hope the TPPA attendees will appreciate this year’s agenda." 

The conference theme, “Innovations in Texas Agriculture for a Profitable Ag Future” shows how research fits into this new world or ag issues, Mandadi says. This new world will rely on new chemistries, new technology and computer science.

TPPA Chairman of the Board Ray Smith, Biological Research Services, Inc., College Station, Texas, says TPPA’s 30 years shows that the organization remains relevant to production agriculture. “We have had from 200 to 300 attendees every year for 30 years.” That’s a remarkable achievement, he says, considering changes in agriculture, especially with company mergers.

“Our triangle format has been important,” he says. “We include Industry, Extension and Research equally in leadership. Officers change one right after the other  Research to Extension, to Industry. That’s why we have been successful.

“We’ve presented timely information at each conference, as is apparent in this year’s agenda.”

See, 9 issues that affect 2019 planting decisions

Smith says his one disappointment is the low grower turnout. “Every year we try to get more growers to come, but we have failed to do that. Attendees are our disciples; they go out and present information to farmers. But I would like to have more farmers.

Mandadi adds that student participation is improving.  "We expect a greater student participation this year,” he says. “We are waiving the registration fee for students who can present a poster, and we are offering discounted rates for those who would like to participate in other portions of the conference.”

Students can compete and win one of the three cash awards for best poster presentation. “I highly encourage all students to take advantage of these opportunities and learn about the latest innovations in agricultural sciences from the leaders,” Mandadi says. 

For more information on the conference check the TPPA website, http://www.texasplantprotection.com/