Unity Through Agriculture by Will Frederick Scientists at the USDA, Texas Tech and Texas A&M Agricultural Experiment Station are currently researching different methods of finding optimum techniques for irrigation scheduling, heat and drought stress, resistant cropping systems, various genetic techniques to determine what makes different plants defend themselves against uncontrollable weather and insect infestations that plague farmers every year. Being one of the largest USDA/ARS research laboratories of its kind in Texas, the Cropping Systems Research Laboratory, headquartered at 3810 4th St., Lubbock, Texas, includes four separate research units: Livestock Issues, Cotton Processing, Plant Stress and Germplasm Development, and Wind Erosion and Water Conservation. Dr. Dan Upchurch, Director of the Cropping Systems Research Laboratory, said that Congress investigated the need for a plant stress laboratory in the late 1950s. Congress determined in 1977 that water stress research was top priority to the nation’s agricultural economy and allocated funds to move scientists into the Lubbock area to study water stress on plants, he said. "Within 50 miles of Lubbock, every major U.S. crop is grown commercially. Semi-arid climate, major crop production and the unique resources of the agricultural departments at Texas Tech University and the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station made Lubbock the most desir-able choice," he said. The USDA Agricultural Research Service leased land from Texas Tech University in 1992 to build the first main facility/greenhouse. Congressman Larry Combest, R-Texas, sponsored a bill authorizing construction on the Cropping Systems Research Laboratory which began in 1998. Upchurch said the total construction cost for the laboratory is $16 million. This figure includes preliminary designs, engineering and environmental reports, construction of the original facility/greenhouse, construction of the main laboratory building and the recent construction of the second phase addition to the existingfacility/greenhouse. Additional construction of research laboratories, shops and additional offices will cost $12.3 million to complete the laboratory’s master plan. Around 60 percent of the nation’s total cotton crop is grown in the Texas High Plains Region. It is estimated that over $1 billion in agricultural revenues impact Lubbock County alone every year. Dr. John J. Burke, research leader for the Plant Stress and Germplasm Development Unit, said his lab has successfully identified problems associated with irrigation methods and scheduling techniques. "Every living thing has a defense system that helps it handle high-temperature stress. We’re interested in sorting out which components in plants are essential for its protection and ones that promote heat tolerance," Burke said. Dr. John Zak,professor in the department of biological sciences at Texas Tech, said he has been working with Dr. Bobbie McMichael, plant physiologist at the Cropping Systems Research Laboratory, for 11 years on research dealing with symbiotic fungi. Zak said he is particularly interested in how arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiotic fungi, beneficial soil born fungus, will affect different cropping systems in a positive way.