Peace Garden News

WASHINGTON – Senator John Hoeven, ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Committee, on June 27, 2023 announced that he:

• Has advanced more than $50 million in agriculture research funding for North Dakota as part of the Senate’s Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 Agriculture Appropriations bill, which was recently approved by the full Senate Appropriations Committee. This includes:
  • More than $25 million for Agriculture Research Service (ARS) and National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) research conducted across North Dakota.
  • $20.5 million for ARS funding for research initiatives led by NDSU.
    • Autonomous Systems and Agricultural Data Security.
    • Predictive Crop Performance Research.
    • Fusion Machine Learning Research.
    • Controlled Environment Agriculture.
    • Agricultural Measurement and Monitoring Innovation Lab.
    • UAS in Precision Agriculture research.
  • $2.5 million to continue an AgTech Cooperative Agreement between Grand Farm, NDSU and ARS.
  • $3 million to support additional renovations at the ARS Edward T. Schafer Agricultural Research Center in Fargo.
• Is also working to establish a new agriculture policy research center at North Dakota State University (NDSU), having secured $2 million toward this effort in the Senate’s FY24 funding legislation. The center would:
  • Help address farm and agribusiness challenges through in-depth policy and economic analysis.
  • Complement the work conducted at similar centers currently housed at the University of Missouri, Texas A&M University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. 

“We are advancing important priorities for North Dakota farmers, ranchers and rural communities in our agriculture appropriations bill, including $2 million we secured for a new Midwest agriculture policy research center, which we are working to house in North Dakota given our leadership in agriculture,” said Ranking Member Hoeven. “At the same time, the bill supports the innovative research and technologies being developed at NDSU and Grand Farm to improve crop yields and keep our producers at the forefront of precision agriculture. We’ve advanced the bill through the committee and will keep working to move it forward in the full Senate.”

Support for Farmers and Ranchers

• Fully funds Farm Service Agency guaranteed and direct loans.
• $2 million for the Wetland Mitigation Banking program, providing an important resource for farmers to remain conservation compliant.
• Provides $2 million for the Water Bank program.
• $500,000 for blackbird depredation in the Northern Great Plains through the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).
• $500,000 increase for APHIS CWD related work. $18 million total.
• Maintains funding to continue the Cattle Contract Library Pilot Program.

ARS and NIFA Agriculture Research Funding

• $13.9 million for ARS Sugarbeet Research.
• $3 million for ARS Barley Pest Initiative.
• $5 million for ARS Genetic Oat Research.
• $5.6 million for ARS Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Research.
• $1.5 million for the Healthy Soils Initiative.
• $6 million, an increase of $500,000, for ARS’ Pulse Crop Quality Initiative.
• $4 million for the Alfalfa Seed and Alfalfa Forage Systems Research program.
• $2 million for the Farm Business Management Program.
• $1 million for a new ARS Wheat Resiliency research initiative.
• $15 million for the Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative.
• $2.4 million for the National Sclerotinia Initiative.
• $2 million for the National Canola Research program.
• $3.5 million for the Small Grains Genomic Initiative.
• $5 million for the National Predictive Modeling Tool Initiative.

Original source can be found here.