FARGO — Millions of dollars in federal grants could help North Dakota become a leader in precision agriculture and research policy.
U.S. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., met Tuesday, April 2, in Fargo with North Dakota State University leaders and agriculture experts to discuss how more than $50 million in federal grants will help producers. About $25 million will go toward Agricultural Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture research in North Dakota, including ARS stations in Fargo, Grand Forks and Mandan, Hoeven said.
“Exciting developments are happening across North Dakota to the benefit of producers in not only in our state, but across the U.S.,” Hoeven said.
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NDSU will get $19.5 million for priority initiatives, which includes expanding research into precision ag. This area of agriculture involves using global positioning systems and other technology to help farmers and ranchers better manage their crops and livestock, according to NDSU.
Using autonomous systems, predictive crop performance research, controlled environments, unmanned aircraft and other techniques, North Dakota could become a leader in precision ag, said Colleen Fitzgerald, vice president for research and creative activity at NDSU.
“What I think you see at NDSU is, NDSU is putting the ag in tech,” she said. “We’re really excited because we think those initiatives are exactly the kinds of initiatives that will put dollars into the pockets of North Dakota ranchers and farmers. That’s what we are all about.”
NDSU also will receive $2 million for fiscal year 2024 for the university’s agriculture policy research center. The center, which is slated to open this fall at Richard H. Barry Hall, will help address farm and agribusiness challenges through policy and economic analysis, meeting the needs of producers in the Midwest. It also will complement similar initiatives at the University of Missouri and Texas A&M University, Hoeven said.
The center also is expected to help bring expertise to Washington, D.C., so lawmakers can be better informed about creating agricultural policy, Hoeven said.
“The policy center is really going to become a cornerstone in the activities associated with what we are trying to build out here,” NDSU Agriculture Vice President Greg Lardy said. “Part of the reason is, we need to focus on issues that are relevant to the Upper Midwest and the Northern Plains states.”
Alyssa Goelzer/The Forum
Some of those issues include crop insurance and livestock risk management, he said.
Another $3 million will go to renovations at the Edward T. Schafer Agricultural Research Center in Fargo, while $2 million is slated for the AgTech Cooperative Agreement between Grand Farm, NDSU and ARS, Hoeven said.
The partnerships that NDSU has with the ARS, Grand Farm and other entities to help agriculture producers in the U.S. are rare, Fitzgerald said. Grand Farm, for example, is a collaborative network of growers, businesses, researchers and others that work to solve problems for producers, Grand Farm CEO Greg Tehven said.
NDSU researchers can analyze data collected from trials conducted at Grand Farm on technology and techniques to see if they would work for producers, Fitzgerald said. Research policy centers exist in other states like Iowa, but people and companies want to come to a place where they know they will find expert research partnered with testing, she said.
“People are coming to North Dakota,” Fitzgerald said. “They know that the expertise is here and we are continuing and continuing to polish that.”
The efforts also could attract talent to the state, Tehven said.
The investments are exciting, NDSU President David Cook said in noting how vital the agriculture industry is to the state and the university.
“These kinds of investments, resources and this kind of support are what allows us to obviously make a huge difference in North Dakota but frankly get on the global scale as well,” Cook said.
