A recent report from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and the Farm Journal Foundation calls for greater support for agricultural research and development in the 2023 Farm Bill. The authors argue that this investment is key to drive domestic and international growth and security.
“Conducting research that would increase access to improved technologies among smallholders would go a long way toward alleviating global hunger,” Katie Lee, Vice President of Government Affairs for the Farm Journal Foundation, tells Food Tank. “It would also benefit the U.S. over the long term – as countries develop, they can become strong trading partners with the U.S.”
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), productivity motivated by research and innovation has been the main contributor to economic growth in U.S. agriculture over the past few decades. The USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) reports that every US$1 invested in public agricultural research and development from 1900 to 2011 generated US$20 in economic benefits.
But the ERS reports that funding for agricultural research and development has been on the decline since 1995. Peggy Yih, Chicago Council’s Managing Director of the Center on Global Food and Agriculture, attributes this decline to the prioritization of funding in other sectors, such as health and energy, as well as people’s growing detachment from food production.
According to Yih, the report reveals how increased agricultural research support can reverse this trend. It can also strengthen economic growth, climate change mitigation efforts, and global food security.
“Funding for agricultural research locks in key resources to help farmers get tools they need to expand productivity, speed adaptation to changing conditions, mitigate rising input costs—and aid the search for sustainable alternatives—and innovate to feed a growing global population more efficiently,” Yih tells Food Tank. “These investments can also help prevent food shortages and famines abroad and reduce US spending on humanitarian food aid.”
The authors argue that increased investing in public research is needed to complement private sector innovation. According to Lee, the private sector plays an important role in increasing agricultural productivity of large commodity crops. But, she says, smaller and more specialized crops, which diversify and enhance nutrition in diets, tend to be overlooked and underfunded.
“Research areas that benefit society as a whole, but have less-clear profit potential and ties to markets, often tend to be overlooked,” says Lee. “This includes areas such as environmental, animal health, and food safety research, and research that benefits crops grown by smallholder farmers and supply chains in the developing world.”
Authorized approximately every five years, the Farm Bill is a piece of legislation that governs agricultural and food programs. According to the authors, the 2023 Farm Bill provides an opportunity to scale up funding for public agriculture and ensure farmers have the resources and tools they need to expand productivity.
The report outlines a series of recommendations Congress can implement to support agricultural innovation in the 2023 Farm Bill. Among them is a direct increase in agricultural research funding for the four USDA research and statistical agencies. It also calls for the reauthorization of the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) and Agriculture Advanced Research and Development Authority (AgARDA). FFAR and AgARDA are two initiatives established in previous Farm Bills to improve agricultural research through public-private partnerships and agencies.
Lee argues that increased funding in public research offers benefits across all aspects of the food system, supporting the wellbeing of farmers and consumers.
“Under these systems, when agriculture improves, in essence, everything improves,” Lee tells Food Tank. “When farmers have tools and technologies that make them better equipped for shocks, then they can continue to feed their families and have decent livelihoods through both good and bad years.”
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Photo courtesy of Chard Stembridge, Unsplash
