CROWLEY, LOUISIANA – Last week, several families and rice industry representatives hosted the Nigerian Catholic Bishop Ernest Obodo and Father Francis Chiawa to south Louisiana rice country. The trip was organized by the Lounsberry Family, including Mrs. Yvonne Lounsberry and Michelle Deshotel, Gayla and Mark Popeck, and their son Conner Popeck. The trip was an initial visit to further explore the idea for the SWLA rice farming family to create a Farmer-to-Farmer Training Program to train Nigerians in the various trades associated with U.S. agriculture practices, with the goal of participants then being able to take these new skills and knowledge back to Nigeria and train others at Mary Agro Farms.
“Mary Agro Farms is an ambitious project created by Bishop Obodo to offer young Nigerians hope for the future through empowerment in the area of modern agriculture,” explained Mark Popeck of Olive Branch, MS. “It’s about self-reliance and the Catholic Diocese of Enugu using agriculture to create opportunities for self-employment to give young people an alternative to unemployment that can lead to illegal migration or worse."
Popeck said the Farmer-to-Farmer program is looking into poultry and pork production, agriculture trades in soil and weed management, milling and storage, technical trades, and energy supply and managent and that the trip to SWLA was to seek potential partners, including the local diocese in Lake Charles and Lafayette for collaboration.
Following visits with Lafayette Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel and Lake Charles Bishop Glen Provost, USA Rice’s Kane Webb joined the group to tour the SWLA rice industry beginning with a tour of Conner Popeck’s and the Lounsberry Farm south of Lake Arthur, LA, including the chance to drive modern equipment used on the farm and then a requisite crawfish boil at Mrs. Yvonne’s home where they were staying during their visit.
The following morning began with a visit and tour of Supreme Rice Mill, with Bobby Hanks, John Morgan, and Danny Nugier. The group traveled east to join the Zaunbrecher family at GF&P Farms where Fred, Paul, Philip and the Zaunbrecher family shared their operation, discussed repairing equipment, and the history of their farming operation and practices.
Drs. Kurt Guidry and Ronnie Levy hosted the group at the H. Rousse Caffey LSU Rice Research Station, where the group learned in more detail the research and work taking place on the station in developing new varieties and best management practices used in rice production.
The day ended with Alan Lawson taking the group through his crawfish plant, explaining the rice crawfish rotation in SWLA, and the processes of retail for live, peeled, and whole boiled crawfish for distribution around the country.
Day 2 of the visit began with a stop at Crowley Grain Drier, where David Trahan explained the process of seed rice production, and showed the group the steps taken in preparing and treating seed for growers to be planted each year. The group then toured Falcon Rice Mill where Robbie Trahan took them through his family’s mill, where they were milling Jasmine rice, to see the stages of the milling process.
The group ended their visit north of Crowley, with Charles and Cole Reiners showing the group their farm’s spraying equipment and explaining the various planting and treatment techniques used in their operation, as well as some restored tractors kept in their shop, telling the story of how technology has advanced the farming operations around the area.