PLANS FOR a new 30,000 square foot horticulture laboratory complex were unveiled during recent ceremonies at the South Mississippi Branch Experiment Station in Poplarville, Miss.

The $10 million Pearl River County facility will house research laboratories and offices for U.S. Department of Agriculture and Mississippi State University personnel. The laboratories will be used for ornamental horticulture and small fruit research. Construction will begin later this year.

The Poplarville facility will be the only major horticultural research facility on the Interstate 10 corridor between Florida and California, said Vance Watson, Mississippi State University interim vice president of the Division of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine.