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| 3-25-09
The Florida Citrus Commission Wednesday approved another $2.5 million to fight the fatal citrus greening disease, the state citrus industry's top priority.
The new spending proposal raises the money spent this year on greening research to $16.4 million.
Most of the 21 proposals recommended by the Florida Citrus Production Research Advisory Council would support the greening effort but not involve new research projects, said Peter McClure, council chairman and a production manager for Evans Properties Inc. in Vero Beach, one of the state's largest citrus growers.
One proposal, for example, would finance the salaries for two University of Florida entomologists in Fort Pierce and Immokalee that might have been laid off as a result of the state's budget crunch, McClure said.
Another would hire more lab workers to screen suspected citrus tree leaves to confirm infection by greening bacteria, he said. The additional workers should reduce the time for lab results from about 12 weeks currently to two weeks.
The Citrus Commission has contributed $13.5 million for greening research.
Read the original article from The Ledger.