AGRICULTURE
THE PONGAMIA PROSPECT
10
TCBusiness.com
TERVIVA
Peter McClure, chief agricultural officer for TerViva, is a longtime citrus grower on the Treasure Coast who is convinced his fellow growers’ fortunes can be revitalized
by planting pongamia trees in former groves. These trees were planted five years ago and are now reaching maturity.
Tree from India may breathe new life
into Florida’s “ghost groves”
Citrus, once the undisputed king of
Florida agriculture, was described recently
by an official of the state Department of
Citrus as “about to fall off the cliff.”
What was once a $9 billion industry,
Florida’s second-most important after
tourism, is in ruins. Ninety percent of the
state’s groves have been infected with
bacteria. In 2004 there were 7,000 groves
in Florida. Today, 5,000 of those operations
have disappeared, the land fallow and
abandoned.
They are sometimes referred to as “ghost
groves.”
Some grove owners have thrown in the
towel and sold their family land for housing
developments. Yet many other farmers
have clung to the dream that one day >>
BY ANTHONY WESTBURY
/TCBusiness.com