AIBS joined 48 other stakeholder groups in urging House and Senate appropriators to provide robust funding for agricultural research in the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies appropriations bill for fiscal year (FY) 2025.
“U.S. federal investments in public agricultural research have stagnated and declined in real terms; a 2022 report by the Economic Research Service found that public agricultural R&D investments have declined by about one-third since peaking in 2002, and concluded that the U.S. is well behind other countries in investment in agricultural R&D,” the letter notes. “This decline in public funding has curtailed the development and dissemination of cutting-edge, regionally and culturally relevant agricultural practices and technologies that can improve producer resilience to environmental and economic challenges.”
The letter calls for strong funding for the Agricultural Research Service and agricultural research, in general, “to catalyze innovative and promising new frontiers that support farmer profitability and resiliency.”
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