Camilla, Ga. — The C.M. Stripling Irrigation Research Park will
become Georgia’s laboratory to study, learn and teach Georgia
farmers and citizens how to better use water, said Gov. Roy
Barnes.

The park will provide the tools scientists need “to discover the
best ways we can understand and make sure there is an adequate
supply of water and an adequate supply of jobs in the future,”
Barnes told those who attended the dedication of the park here
May 11.

The 133 acres of land used for the park was donated to Mitchell
County by C.M. Stripling, whom Barnes honored for his
contribution to the future of Georgia agriculture. Mitchell
County leases the land to the University of Georgia College of
Agricultural and Environmental Sciences to use for the park.

Blessed

“We don’t realize how blessed we are by God with so much water
(in Georgia),” Barnes said. “Unless we make sure we are good
stewards of water both for agriculture and industry, we have no
future.”

Barnes said the park shows Georgia’s commitment to water
conservation and will help the state in the current water
negotiations with Florida and Alabama, who have sued the state
over water.

“We have been able to point in those negotiations to this center
and to the other research in (Georgia) conserving water,” Barnes
said. “We can develop methods for agriculture to fully irrigate
in a more effective and efficient way — therefore, quit suing
us
and get off our backs.”

Answers to Crisis

Barnes added that agriculture and rural Georgia are in a
critical
state.

“Agriculture is under attack in the United States. It’s under
attack because of the globalization of trade,” he said.

But he said rural Georgia can still grow.

“We have the recipe for a successful rural renaissance in
Georgia
. . . economic development, better educated and better trained
workers and more effective and more efficient agriculture with a
value-added element,” he said. “This (research park) is a
cornerstone in that effort.”

Science Ready

The CAES has “never had the kind of (water research) facility we
have here to let us do the things we feel like are so
important,”
said CAES Dean and Director Gale Buchanan.

“The kinds of things we’ll be doing at this site will have
benefits certainly for this area, for farmers, and certainly for
agriculture. But the beneficiary is all of the people in the
state of Georgia,” Buchanan said.

“Water, very often,” he said, “decides profit or loss in
agriculture, the success of our state and the economy.”

Farmers can learn the best techniques for irrigating in Georgia
from the research at the park, said Mitchell County farmer
Murray
Campbell.

“Agriculture is a very large user of water in the state,” said
Campbell, who chairs the park’s advisory committee. “And we need
to learn how to use it wisely and judiciously.”