AgriLife Extension Soil & Crop Sciences
The Extension Agronomy program at Corpus Christi seeks to help maximize crop yields and grower profitability in south Texas, while also ensuring long-term sustainability by increasing the efficiency of inputs and conserving natural resources. Applied research focuses include variety/hybrid testing of various crops, weed management, nutrient management, and precision agriculture.
AgriLife Research Crop Physiology
Our crop physiology program focuses on understanding ways in which plant physiological processes are integrated to cause whole plant responses under field conditions and how these processes can be manipulated to improve the management of crops. It focus in understanding the dynamics of the mass and energy balance of crops. More specifically, optimizing the balance between canopy light capture and biomass accumulation (photosynthesis) and water losses through the evapotranspiration process under the dryland crop production systems of the lower coastal bend region of Texas.
AgriLife Research Digital Agriculture
Recent advances in remote sensing and Artificial Intelligence (AI), allows to quantify field scale phenotypic information accurately and integrate the big data into predictive and prescriptive management tools. This program focuses on the use of recent technological advances in remote sensing and AI to improve the resilience of agricultural systems, which present a unique opportunity for the development of prescriptive tools needed to address the next decade’s agricultural and human nutrition challenges.
Plant Pathology
Crop diseases are a constant problem in agricultural production fields across Texas. Several soilborne pathogens of sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) and corn (Zea mays) are endemic problems across Texas but especially in South Texas.