Farm Bill: A Tool For Mechanization
August 1, 2008 In my last column, I asserted that a producer’s choice of plant material — the rootstock and scion combination — dictates an orchard block’s ultimate performance potential. We will manage that block to optimize efficiency, productivity, fruit quality, and please our consumers, but we have to manage the specific genetics of that plant material. Skimp on the genetics and you‘re liable to get stuck with an inefficient, under-productive, low-quality mess that will never cash flow. Start with the right genetics, the right crop, and the right cultivars top and bottom, put that in the right site, and you have a chance to stay economically viable.
Our labor supply remains uncertain, costs are way up, and quality is harder to find, but the crisis has not yet hit. When it does, and fruit is left hanging unharvested, perhaps there will be some legislative or regulatory fix. I would not count on that, though. Even the 2008 Farm Bill, which had a broad enough base of Congressional support to easily override an Executive veto, took months to grind out.
The outcome of the Farm Bill is not nearly everything specialty crop producers and processors wanted, but far more than we have ever had before —
around $3 billion over the five-year term of the legislation, in support for marketing, nutrition, phytosanitary, and research efforts. The hard work and leadership of specialty crop industry and commodity organizations has paid off. The country is now much more aware of the importance of enhancing the competitiveness of our specialty crop producers and processors.
Many of our goals were achieved in the research sections of the Farm Bill. Funding for research is mandatory, and projects are supported for up to 10 years (twice the previous limit). It requires matching funding, with demonstrated investment by stakeholders. The competitive grant program clearly requests projects that are:
• Multi-state, multi-institutional, or multi-disciplinary, and
• Include explicit mechanisms to communicate results to producers and the public.
Finally, the research focus areas include research in plant breeding, genetics, and genomics to improve crop characteristics, as well as innovations, including mechanization, to improve production efficiency, productivity, and profitability for the long term.
Thus, as federal policy, specialty crop industries throughout the country will benefit from research and Extension that is more focused on deliverables than ever, and those deliverables include improved plant materials and production and processing systems that feature mechanization.
Strong Support
Mechanization is a word that has not applied to federally sponsored agricultural research since 1980, when USDA officially de-emphasized this area of investigation. Fortunately, that policy was reversed in 2001; unfortunately, those 20 years of neglect mean that few researchers and few students pursued engineering solutions applicable to specialty crops: efficient, scale-appropriate powered equipment; labor-aids and automation; sensors and diagnostics; or integrated and sustainable production systems. Neither land grant universities nor the USDA Agricultural Research Service had sufficient resources to conduct meaningful research, education, or Extension.
Certainly, some innovations have occurred in equipment and precision agriculture in agronomic crops like corn, rice, wheat, and soybeans, where federal support and the market provided adequate capital and return on investment for producers and large equipment manufacturers. And even in specialty crops, especially those grown for processing (tart cherries, almonds, walnuts, winegrapes, etc.), harvest mechanization is a success story. Yet, overall, labor-intensive specialty crop industries, whose production areas are scattered geographically with some very specific regional requirements, have seen research on potential engineering solutions languish. This leaves them more vulnerable than ever to lower-cost foreign competition.
Ironically, where engineering innovations have occurred in specialty crops (like much of the recently-introduced genetics), they are coming from research and development abroad. The U.S., once the world leader in agricultural research, plant improvement, and mechanization, now lags behind European and Asian countries.
The unprecedented investment in specialty crops outlined in the 2008 Farm Bill, including around $230 million allotted to the Specialty Crops Research Initiative, represents an overdue but most welcome opportunity for the research community to work energetically with producers and processors throughout the country, attacking priority problem areas, assembling new teams, and taking a truly partnered approach to applying engineering solutions to our challenges.
Our industries are grateful to Congress for this recognition and legislation. We also acknowledge the tremendous leadership provided by key USDA National Program Leaders: Tom Bewick, Sally Schneider, Dan Schmoldt, and Jeff Steiner. The research community and stakeholders are now rolling up their sleeves and getting to work with these new resources and strategic priorities. It will be an exciting, energizing time — I have no doubt that American/Western Fruit Grower will feature many articles in the coming years reporting on the impact of this investment on our national specialty crop industries.
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