U.S. government helps fund guayule project in South Africa

WASHINGTON (Jan. 18)—The Limpopo Valley, in the Northern Province of South Africa, is set to become the site of a 75,000-acre cultivation project for guayule, the natural rubber latex-bearing shrub native to Mexico and the southwestern U.S. The project, a collaboration between the Northern Province government and U.S.-based firm Community Revitalization International, has so far received more than $1 million in private funding, according to CRI President George Mills. In a separate development, the Agricultural Research Council of South Africa has received $98,000 from the U.S. Agency for International Development and "a small amount of money" from the U.S. Department of Agriculture´s Agricultural Research Service for general guayule research, said ARS guayule researcher Katrina Cornish.