ARDMORE, Okla. (AP)--Rep. Greg Piatt and Sen. Johnnie Crutchfield are working to secure approximately $1.46 million from the state Department of Agriculture to fund research for the Oklahoma Consortium for Legume Research.

The consortium is a collaboration among The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma.

According to Steven Rhines, director of legal affairs for The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation the task is to identify a resistant line of alfalfa to cotton root rot.

"OSU and Noble have had some internal funding toward this," Rhines said. "They've been working on it about a year, year and a half. The thing that's kind of interesting about this is, cotton root rot, the fungus that makes it was probably deposited in this area, and to the southwest, at the turn of the century when cotton grew here. It's lived in the soil for almost 100 years plus. So when you come in there and put alfalfa in, it destroys it."

In 2000, there were an estimated 23.6 million acres of alfalfa cut for hay in the U.S., having a value of more than $7 billion. Alfalfa meal cubes are annually exported to other countries with a value of more than $40 million to the economy.

In Oklahoma, alfalfa is grown on about 350,000 acres, which produces nearly 1.2 million tons. Alfalfa production in Oklahoma averaged 3.5 tons per acre compared to 1.5 tons per acre for other hay producing grasses. The estimated impact to Oklahoma is at least $120 million annually.

Cotton root rot is a disruptive and highly destructive disease that has sweeping economic impact in Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, southern California and Mexico.

This disease affects more than 2,000 broadleaf species, including numerous commercial crops such as peanuts, pecans, fruit trees, grapes, cotton and vegetable crops.

"There's no cure to it," Rhines said. "There's no solution to it. Most of the things the farmers have done in Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico is just not plant alfalfa. Probably for the first time there will be a solution to address that."

With the requested $1.6 million Piatt and Crutchfield are working to secure, the consortiums' respective institutions will make varying contributions of overhead and personnel for another 50 percent of this amount. Progress in this research will also allow scientists to seek federal funding.

"This project probably began about a little over a year ago with work going on independently at OSU and Noble," Rhines said. "This is the kind of project that has a 5-, 10-year cycle to it."

Date: 3/24/05