About

The Safford Agricultural Center is solving problems in cotton, as well as providing variety testing for a number of field crops. The Center provides several trial topics, including:

• Performance of experimental and commercial cotton cultivars of both Upland and Pima cotton. 
• A multi-state evaluation of biological fertilizer enhancement. The projects are designed to evaluate the effects of various biological products on the fertility levels, crop growth and development, and yield of cotton. 
• Investigating the link between warm and cool laboratory seed germination.
• Ongoing projects involve evaluating the performance of several pomegranate cultivars for adaptability in the higher desert elevations and a new planting of pecan seedlings will be established to further investigate the tolerance to soil and water salinity of pecan root stocks. 

The Safford Agricultural Center was acquired with state and Graham County Farm Bureau funds in 1946. Since its inception, the facility has provided research and service to farmers across Southeastern Arizona, including Graham, Greenlee and Cochise counties. The center has made specific contributions in raising crops under the same saline conditions local growers face. The founders chose the site deliberately because of the unfavorable salinity and highly alkaline characteristics in its soil and water. 

Agronomists, soil and water scientists, plant pathologists, weed specialists, entomologists, plant scientists and other researchers have studied ways to raise successful commercial crops under these regional conditions. Crops have included sugar beets, rice, safflower, durum and winter wheat, barley, amaranth, alfalfa, beans, fruit trees, pecans and pistachios. 

Solving problems in cotton has been a particular focus, with researchers conducting investigations on all aspects of cotton farming: soil conditions, fertilizing, weed and insect control, row spacing, breeding, planting dates, varieties, rotations and irrigation. 

The facility also provides the infrastructure for Cooperative Extension agricultural research and education throughout the Southeastern part of the state, and has meteorological monitoring infrastructure that has reported weather information to local, state and national agencies for more than 70 years.