A new collection of researchers and scientists at the University of California, Davis, aims to help producers navigate the production of agave plants as more and more turn to the crop to address long-standing drought.
The newly-formed UC Davis Agave Center will be led by Ron Runnebaum, a viticulture and enology professor at the university.
“As more and more people are planting, it’s important for us to be engaging with growers to inform the expansion of planting,” Runnebaum said in a release. “We’re fortunate UC Davis has a lot of the expertise from other crops that can be adapted to the emerging industry needs in California.”
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According to UC Davis, the new center’s mission is to “organize researchers, staff and students around the growing fields of study and education needs of agave growers, processors and distillers.”
Runnebaum plans to conduct a survey to get a better handle on agave production in the state; he estimates more than 200 acres of the crop were planted last year. He and others at the center have also “submitted proposals with state, federal and philanthropic funders … to be able to expand research and analysis over the long term,” UC Davis noted in a release. California producers Stuart and Lisa Woolf donated to form a research fund that now bears their name, something the university noted is meant to serve as “a seed donation.”
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