Agricultural Research Funding

This book provides an analysis of funding for agricultural research in the United States and presents a proposal to strengthen this system. Its premise is that a judicious but substantial increase in research funding through competitive grants is the best way to sustain and strengthen the U.S. agricultural, food, and environmental system. The proposal calls for an increased public investment in research; a broadened scientific scope and expanded program areas of research; and four categories of competitively awarded grants, with an emphasis on multidisciplinary research.

Over the years, proposals have recommended shifting the focus of public ag. res. from applied to basic research, and giving higher priority to peer-reviewed, competitively funded grants. The public ag. res. system in the U.S. is a Fed.-State partnership, with most res. conducted at State institutions. In recent years, State funds have declined, USDA funds have remained fairly steady, but funding from other Fed. agencies and the private sector has increased. Along with shifts in funding sources, the proportion of basic res. being undertaken within the public ag. research system has declined. This report focuses on the way public ag. res. is funded in the U.S. and how changes in funding sources over the last 25 years reflect changes in the type of res. pursued.

The Board on Agriculture (BA), in this self-initiated study, reaffirms recommendations it made for the U.S. Department of Agriculture supported competitive grants program in its 1989 report Investing in Research: A Proposal to Strengthen the Agricultural, Food, and Environmental System. Although the National Initiative for Research on Agriculture, Food, and Environment expanded following the BA's 1989 report, it has achieved neither the program breadth nor the $500 million annual funding level recommended. The book's discussion of competitively awarded grants as a mechanism to support high-quality research broadly related to agriculture, food, and natural resources dovetails with current efforts to craft the research component of the 1995 Farm Bill.

Federal Agricultural Research Funding: Issues and Concerns

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) requested that the Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources of the National Research Council (NRC) convene a panel of experts to examine whether publicly funded agricultural research has influenced the structure of U.S. agriculture and, if so, how. The Committee to Review the Role of Publicly Funded Agricultural Research on the Structure of U.S. Agriculture was asked to assess the role of public-sector agricultural research on changes in the size and numbers of farms, with particular emphasis on the evolution of very-large-scale operations.