New and Better Markets Seeded for Growth in U.S. Ag Sector
March 7, 2022 USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has announced an investment of more than $15 million to support building new and better markets for U.S. agriculture and rural communities.
This investment is under the NIFA’s Agricultural Economics and Rural Communities (AERC) program’s Economics, Markets and Trade priority area. AERC addresses challenges facing the evolving agricultural sector within rural communities, including implications for food production and consumption, and natural resources management to protect the environment in the face of increasing global demands for food production.
AERC is part of the NIFA Agriculture and Food Research Initiative’s Foundational and Applied Science program, which builds on the fundamental and applied knowledge foundation in food and agricultural sciences that is critical for solving real-world problems.
Collectively, this funding will support 27 projects. These research projects will develop theories, methods, and applications for agricultural economics.
Examples of fiscal year 2022 funded projects, include:
• The University of Connecticut will generate new knowledge about forming preferential trade agreements, their impact on global trade, and the consequences for U.S. agricultural and food businesses and employment. The project will help to inform federal policies that aim to foster the competitiveness of U.S. farmers and ranchers and increase their participation and success in international markets. ($650,000)
• University of Florida, in cooperation with California Polytechnic State University and USDA’s Economic Research Service, will investigate the growth and locational patterns of dollar stores with respect to store demographic, socioeconomic and market-level characteristics; the impact of dollar-store growth on changes in household purchasing behavior; and the effect of dollar-store entry on the viability of independent grocery stores. The work will shed light on the consequences of dollar-store growth on U.S. retail market structure, inform policymakers, and contribute to sustainable U.S. food systems and economic development. ($623,756)
• Clark University in Worcester, MA, is partnering with Virginia Tech and ICF International to develop and evaluate a choice-experiment architecture using online, interactive and map-based software to determine valuation for large-scale agricultural conservation and ecosystem services. The methods developed will provide a means to estimate respondents’ willingness to pay for a wide array of conservation programs and practices, resulting in credible estimates of economic value linked to agricultural conservation practices. ($799,994)
• North Carolina A&T University will provide experiential learning opportunities for students in agricultural and related sciences through a research symposium of all 1890 Land-grant Universities. Students will participate in active learning sessions across many science disciplines. The symposium, planned for April 2-5, 2022, in Atlanta, Ga., will showcase the research power of Historically Black Colleges and Universities and encourage the next generation of scientists and agricultural professionals. ($50,000).
Click here to learn more about other projects being funded.