Persistence Pays
Persistence Pays

Author: Julian M. Alston

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2009-11-27

Total Pages: 515

ISBN-13: 1441906584

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gricultural science policy in the United States has profoundly affected the growth and development of agriculture worldwide, not just in the A United States. Over the past 150 years, and especially over the second th half of the 20 Century, public investments in agricultural R&D in the United States grew faster than the value of agricultural production. Public spending on agricultural science grew similarly in other more-developed countries, and c- lectively these efforts, along with private spending, spurred agricultural prod- tivity growth in rich and poor nations alike. The value of this investment is seldom fully appreciated. The resulting p- ductivity improvements have released labor and other resources for alternative uses—in 1900, 29. 2 million Americans (39 percent of the population) were - rectly engaged in farming compared with just 2. 9 million (1. 1 percent) today— while making food and fiber more abundant and cheaper. The benefits are not confined to Americans. U. S. agricultural science has contributed with others to growth in agricultural productivity in many other countries as well as the Un- ed States. The world’s population more than doubled from around 3 billion in 1961 to 6. 54 billion in 2006 (U. S. Census Bureau 2009). Over the same period, production of important grain crops (including maize, wheat and rice) almost trebled, such that global per capita grain production was 18 percent higher in 2006.

National Research Initiative
National Research Initiative

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2000-09-08

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 030907083X

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Our nation faces daunting challenges to its food and fiber system and to the condition of our natural resources in the coming decades. Rapid increases in world population and the pressure on resources generated by increasing per capita consumption as a result of increasing per capita income challenge the very basis of our standard of livingâ€"our food, fiber, and natural-resource base. As the nation faces the challenges, new technologies and new information systems are changing the face of biologic research. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has traditionally been the nation's primary public research engine in food, fiber, and natural resources. The National Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program (NRI) is a small part of that USDA research effort, but it accounts for a substantial portion of the nation's merit-based peer-reviewed fundamental research efforts in food, fiber, and natural resources. In 1997, USDA asked the National Research Council Board on Agriculture (now the Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources) to conduct an independent assessment of the NRI program. Specifically, USDA asked the Research Council to: perform a retrospective assessment of the quality and value of research funded by the program; determine whether the science and technology priorities in the major NRI programs are defined appropriately; assess how NRI activities complement other USDA programs, those of other federal agencies, and state programs in the private sector; and recommend the nature and content of changes for the future. This report summarizes the results of the committee's analysis. Chapter 2 summarizes the value of food, fiber, and natural resources-research to the United States, focusing on economic contributions and rates of return of food and fiber research. The committee's analysis of the quality, value, fairness, relevance, and responsiveness of the NRI competitive grants program is presented in chapter 3. Chapter 4 presents the committee's analysis of the role and scope of the NRI, including its scientific objectives, its value in training and education, and its complementarity with other research activities. The committee's analysis of NRI's priority-setting process and its research priorities is given in chapter 5. The committee's analysis of organizational and funding issues is given in chapter 6. Chapter 7 presents the committee's recommendations to improve the effectiveness of the NRI program. Additional supporting materials are found in appendixes A through I.

Financing Agricultural Research
Financing Agricultural Research

Author: International Service for National Agricultural Research

Publisher: Isnar International Service for National Agricultural

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13:

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Finance policy for agricultural research; Resource mobalization and accountability; Financial management; Trends in agricultural research funding.

Long-Term Farming Systems Research
Long-Term Farming Systems Research

Author: Gurbir Bhullar

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2020-05-17

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 0128181877

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Long-Term Farming Systems Research: Ensuring Food Security in Changing Scenarios presents the legacy and heritage of Long-Term Experiments (LTEs) in Agriculture while also addressing the challenges and potential solutions. The book discusses how LTEs form an important asset in understanding agriculture's significant influence on life on earth. As global governments and development agencies try to achieve the Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, this book's content is of unprecedented importance, providing insights into the interactions of agricultural production with ecological, economic and societal aspects. In this regard, this book offers a thorough resource of information based on experiences from various ongoing LTEs in different parts of the world. The contextual variety and geographic diversity presented in this book makes it useful for agricultural and environmental scientists, as well as students and educators in such fields. --- From the Editors: "Thanks to the excellent panel of our contributing authors, in this book, we have attempted to offer the widest possible thematic and geographical coverage on LTEs. Experts from different institutions leading LTEs across the globe have provided their perspectives on different aspects of LTEs, not only highlighting the unique knowledge contribution of LTEs, but also discussing the unique challenges of effectively managing LTEs and maintaining their relevance to changing scenarios. We hope that this book will offer something for everyone interested in the history, present and future of our agroecosystem." - Provides a comprehensive resource of information generated in various LTEs across the globe, with a focus on various aspects of farming systems, crop management practices, plant, soil and human nutrition as well as on capacity development - Presents a holistic view on interactions of agricultural production and its relationship to the environment and society - Identifies challenges and lessons learned from different LTEs and provides recommendations for potential solutions

Science Breakthroughs to Advance Food and Agricultural Research by 2030
Science Breakthroughs to Advance Food and Agricultural Research by 2030

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2019-04-21

Total Pages: 243

ISBN-13: 0309473926

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For nearly a century, scientific advances have fueled progress in U.S. agriculture to enable American producers to deliver safe and abundant food domestically and provide a trade surplus in bulk and high-value agricultural commodities and foods. Today, the U.S. food and agricultural enterprise faces formidable challenges that will test its long-term sustainability, competitiveness, and resilience. On its current path, future productivity in the U.S. agricultural system is likely to come with trade-offs. The success of agriculture is tied to natural systems, and these systems are showing signs of stress, even more so with the change in climate. More than a third of the food produced is unconsumed, an unacceptable loss of food and nutrients at a time of heightened global food demand. Increased food animal production to meet greater demand will generate more greenhouse gas emissions and excess animal waste. The U.S. food supply is generally secure, but is not immune to the costly and deadly shocks of continuing outbreaks of food-borne illness or to the constant threat of pests and pathogens to crops, livestock, and poultry. U.S. farmers and producers are at the front lines and will need more tools to manage the pressures they face. Science Breakthroughs to Advance Food and Agricultural Research by 2030 identifies innovative, emerging scientific advances for making the U.S. food and agricultural system more efficient, resilient, and sustainable. This report explores the availability of relatively new scientific developments across all disciplines that could accelerate progress toward these goals. It identifies the most promising scientific breakthroughs that could have the greatest positive impact on food and agriculture, and that are possible to achieve in the next decade (by 2030).

Soil Biological Fertility
Soil Biological Fertility

Author: Lynette K. Abbott

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2007-10-23

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 1402066198

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It is becoming more relevant to explore soil biological processes in terms of their contribution to soil fertility. This book presents a comprehensive scientific overview of the components and processes that underpin the biological characteristics of soil fertility. It highlights the enormous diversity of life in soil and the resulting effects that management of land can have on the contribution of this diverse community to soil fertility in an agricultural context.