Research
NAMA has, and will continue, to educate lawmakers and the Administration officials on the essential need to invest in agricultural research to improve yield, nutritional quality and improve disease resistance. NAMA teamed with growers, bakers and researches to lobby Congress with a unified message of the need for continued funding for these important programs.
The President’s FY2013 budget proposes increases of $68 million to U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Research, Education and Economics budget. The proposed USDA budget for the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is $1.103 billion in discretionary spending, a small increase from FY2012. Specific to grain crops, there are increases for research to address climate and environmental challenges facing agriculture ($25 million), $1.6 million to look at high throughput phenotyping using new plant root imaging methods, and genotyping, germplasm improvement using NexGen DNA sequencing. Manhattan, Kansas received $500,000 for research on genetic drought improvement.
Soft Wheat Quality Lab
The ARS’ Soft Wheat Quality Lab (SWQL) continues to have two key positions vacant until all ARS employees who were displaced due to budget cuts have been offered open positions. In the interim, Dr. Peg Redinbaugh will serve as director and Midwest-area director Larry Chandler has oversight responsibility for the continuity of programs at Wooster. NAMA sent a letter of support for the SWQL, stressing the importance of a strong, fully staffed team. NAMA President Mary Waters will attend a SWQL Stakeholder meeting with ARS leadership in late March. The purpose of the meeting is to advise ARS on a plan to fill the vacancies and identify future research goals for the lab.
Oat Research
Dr. Eric Jackson, USDA-ARS lead researcher for the North American Collaborative Oat Research Enterprise (NA-CORE), has announced he will be leaving the public sector to join General Mills. Jackson’s leadership and innovation on the NA-CORE project are responsible for the rapid success of the project’s objectives, including providing oat breeders with a quick, accurate means of identifying valued traits in elite commercial cultivars and germplasm sources. Dr. Gongshe Hu will serve as the ARS contact for the project. NAMA pledged $500,000 over three years to the global oat research project in 2009, and will continue to support the work of the team Jackson built in the future.
NAMA Oat Division members unanimously agreed to support a proposal to evaluate oat breeding lines for Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus tolerance. Fred Kolb at the University of Illinois who has been doing this work for many years is leading the project. USDA/ARS budget cuts make it difficult to continue providing these critical evaluations to NAMA without additional funding sources.
Last updated February 2012
Prepare by Sherri Lehman, Director of Government Relations, 202.484.2200, ext. 13, slehman@namamillers.org
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