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The National Association of Wheat Growers - with the support of CAWG - and others wrote leaders of the House Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Agriculture this week urging them to provide at least $300 million to the new Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) in FY2010.
 
The letter, sent to Subcommittee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) and Ranking Member Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), was coordinated by the National Coalition for Food and Agricultural Research (National C-FAR), which works to increase federal support for food and agricultural research.
 
Organizations signing the letter urged the funding as a first step toward funding AFRI at the fully authorized level of $700 million annually.
 
AFRI, established in the 2008 Farm Bill, is the successor to USDA's National Research Initiative (NRI) and the Initiative for Future Agriculture and Food Systems (IFAFS), and will provide competitive grants for research, extension and education.
 
The letter urged the Subcommittee to work toward full funding for AFRI, saying:
 
"We support full funding of AFRI at the authorized level of $700 million annually, and urge the Subcommittee to fully fund AFRI as soon as practicable, by FY13 at the latest. This is consistent with President Obama's commitment to return our nation to sound science..."  

When CAWG visited Washington D.C. this winter during out visits to Senator Boxer, Feinstein and House members we specifically asked for the increase mentioned above.  Also with input from Dr. Jorge Dubcovsky we "pre-briefed" on an upcoming project that will support wheat and barley breeders at land grant colleges across the U.S. 

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Recently, the National Association of Wheat Growers participated in an Agricultural Research and Productivity for the Future forum.  
 
The purpose of the forum was to examine the public returns on agricultural research investments and discuss ag research priority issues and how to secure funding for them.
 
Dr. Keith Fuglie, an economist from USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS), summarized the economic literature on the payback rates of agricultural research investments. Though a series of more than 20 studies since 1958 shows a range of payoff estimates, Fuglie and ERS colleague Paul Heisey concluded an average internal rate of return on agricultural research investments is 45 percent, significantly better than most federal or private investments. 
 
The study also showed that while agriculture accounts only for 1.8 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product, it accounts for 12.1 percent of total factor productivity growth, thanks largely to investments in research.  
 
A note of caution was sounded by University of Minnesota economist Dr. Phil Pardey, who shared data suggesting the rate of productivity growth in agriculture began a decline in about 1990 following a decline in program funding.
 
Pardey said that while funding for research in the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has grown rapidly, agricultural research investments have stayed flat or declined in real terms, and that the share of federal research investments focused on productivity growth are declining as other priorities compete for those research dollars.
 
The meeting also included a brainstorming session where participants offered suggestions for securing sufficient resources to meet research needs. Some of these included: 

• uniting agricultural organizations to forcefully advocate for broad research funds instead of focusing only on the needs of individual commodities;
• recruiting Congressional champions who have the power to influence funding levels, similar to what happens with funding for NIH;and,
• fighting interests engaged in only one topic from driving the research agenda away from systems.  

ERS reports with more on data presented at the meeting are accessible at: 
www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/EB9/ and www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/EB10/.

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The Obama Administration released long-awaited budget details Thursday reflecting little change to agriculture proposals despite significant criticism from industry and Members of Congress.
 
The Administration's proposals called for:

• imposing a hard payment limit cap of $250,000.
• phasing out direct payments to farmers with annual sales revenue above $500,000.
• reducing Market Access Program funding by 20 percent.
• reducing crop insurance premium subsidies by five percentage points on all coverage levels.
• increasing the government's share of crop insurance underwriting gains to 20 percent from 5 percent.
• changing the way premiums for CAT coverage are calculated.
• eliminating any new funding for Agricultural Research Service buildings in 2010 and canceling balances for previously approved facility construction.
• terminating the Resource Conservation and Development program.
• terminating the Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations program.

 
These proposals largely mirrored proposals released in late February, which garnered extremely negative reactions from key Members of Congress and agricultural associations.

NAWG - along with CAWG - and other ag groups have also frequently joined together to state official opposition to individual proposals; for instance, last week, NAWG, U.S. Wheat Associates and 120 other groups wrote the White House to reiterate the importance of MAP funding. 
 
Leaders in Congress, the body that ultimately appropriates funds, have also proved unreceptive to the Administration proposals. Agriculture and budget committees in both chambers rejected the proposals while writing the budget resolution that will guide FY2010 appropriations, which was finalized last week. Perhaps the most colorful reaction from the Hill to these ideas came from House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), who called the ideas "more than dead on arrival".
 
We will continue to follow the budgeting and appropriations process and assert the priorities of the wheat industry, including the preservation of the direct payment and crop insurance programs, full funding for MAP and the importance of research.
 

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Some producers will have the opportunity to modify and extend Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contracts scheduled to expire Sept. 30, USDA announced late last week.
 
USDA said its Farm Service Agency began contacting eligible producers on May 6. Sign-up will run from May 18 until June 30.
 
CRP contracts with the highest environmental benefit or with the highest potential for soil erosion will be selected. Chosen CRP contract holders will generally be offered a three to five year extension at the current contract rental rate. All or a portion of the acreage under contract may be included in an extension, but no new acreage may be added.
 
USDA said it can only extend approximately 1.5 million acres out of a total 3.9 million acres expiring this year in order to comply with the statutory CRP acreage limitation of 32 million acres established in the 2008 Farm Bill. A general CRP signup is not scheduled during fiscal year 2009.