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Chris Greer conducts the UCCE rice farming systems program in Sutter/Yuba, Placer and Sacramento.
Chris graduated from UCD with a PhD in Plant Pathology, emphasizing fungal diseases of rice. Chris’ experience with California rice began in 1996 as a graduate student, evaluating chemical control methods for stem rot and aggregate sheath spot diseases. Later that same year, he identified rice blast disease in California and developed a dissertation research project with Dr. Bob Webster. Chris’s rice blast research focused on initial identification of the pathogen, distribution of the disease, cultural and chemical controls, impact of local environmental conditions on disease development, disease susceptibility of California rice varieties and determining the diversity within the local pathogen population.
Upon leaving UC Davis and prior to joining UCCE, Chris worked two years for a Yuba City based company managing operations for a regional weather data network in the Sacramento Valley. The collected weather data was used in disease prediction models to develop daily disease risk indices for various crops and pathogens throughout the area.
Rice, including paddy and seed rice, was produced on over 142 thousand acres in the county in 2002, and had an on-farm value of $146 million. This was over 50% of the total county ag income. Local rice acreage increased 21% from 2001, while the farm-gate value rose 20%.