Washington D.C., USA
September 17, 2024

This week, leaders from agInnovation, the network of agricultural experiment stations at the nation’s land-grant universities, revealed a new 10-year Research Roadmap in Washington D.C. 

The plan was created by a working group consisting of state agricultural experiment station directors from each of agInnovation’s regions: North Central, Northeastern, Southern, Western and 1890 land-grant universities, as well as members of the Association of Public and Land-grant University’s (APLU) Boards on Agriculture Assembly and Natural Resources, 1994 land-grant institutions and others.

The Roadmap will address some of the primary obstacles to a prosperous future, according to George Smith, Michigan State University AgBioResearch director and agInnovation chair.

Smith noted that 70% of publicly funded research and development is conducted by universities and other nonfederal institutions. Those research results deliver $20 of economic activity for every $1 invested. He said university-led research plays a critical role in the daily lives of all Americans, but there are limitations caused by current funding levels.

“We’ve constructed the 10-Year Research Roadmap around the themes of climate solutions, water resiliency and sustainable agriculture systems, which broadly encompass the central issues we need to grapple with,” Smith said. “To do that, we need strategic investment from the federal government. As many of our nation’s leaders have repeatedly said, food security is national security. The U.S. must devote greater resources to agricultural innovation to keep pace with countries like China, the top investor in the world in this area.”

The Roadmap advocates for an increase in research funding over the next decade to agInnovation institutions that amounts to just 1% of the federal research and development budget, $1.9 billion per year.

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Website: https://www.aginnovation.info/

Published: September 17, 2024