Agronomic & Forage Crops Program
Field and forage crops are grown on most of the more than 200 million acres of harvested cropland in the United States. These crops provide the food, feed grain, oil, and fiber for domestic consumption, and they are a major component of U.S. export trade.
General Information
Uses of grain, oil, and fiber crops for industrial purposes are substantial and increasing. Competition from world markets has kept the price of farm commodities low, while the cost of production continues to increase. To stay competitive, farmers have had to adopt innovative practices, such as high-yielding cultivars, labor-saving equipment, and chemical inputs. At the same time, they must maintain a balance between yield and input costs, as well as monitor environmental impacts. These challenges are likely to intensify. Therefore, the need for NIFA support for agronomic research, extension, and education is greater now than ever before.
Cultivar Selection and Development
This research work focuses on developing cultivars that are adapted to local climatic and soil conditions. These cultivars provide resistance to major pests and diseases, produce acceptable yield and quality, and have appropriate agronomic characteristics that are compatible with production systems.
The success of agronomic crop production in various locations in the United States depends on the availability of plant varieties and hybrids specifically adapted to local production conditions. Cultivar selection and development represent a major use of NIFA federal Hatch and multistate formula grants by land-grant experiment stations. Most of them have active breeding programs to develop the more important crops grown in their state.
Research activities in this area span a wide range, including:
- New planting, cultivating, harvesting, and processing technologies for use in crop and forage production systems
- Genes identified of agronomic importance and methods developed to accelerate improvement in new crop varieties and value-added products
- New methods to estimate forage yield and quality to support marketing and reduce producer risks
- Superior performing varieties with resistance to established and emerging pests and diseases, or abiotic stresses
- Improved water and nutrient use efficiency traits for crop varieties that result in decreased irrigation and fertilizer demand, while maintaining yield and quality
- Multiple production components managed to improve profitability, productivity, and resource stewardship
- Crop production systems modeled and data integrated to increase productivity and enhance resilience
- Weed Science Society of America
- American Society of Agronomy
- American Soybean Association
- Society of Range Management
- American Forage and Grassland Council
- California Alfalfa and Forages, University of California
- Crops Publications, Iowa State University
- National Corn Growers Association
- National Sunflower Association
- North American Alfalfa Improvement Conference
- Western Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors
- Northeast Pasture Research and Extension Consortium, University of Maine
- Northeastern Regional Association of Agricultural Experiment Station Directors
- Plants Database, Natural Resources Conservation Service, USDA
- International Plant Nutrition Institute
- Purdue Forage Information, Purdue University
- Role of Forages in Pennsylvania Agriculture, Pennsylvania State University
- Society of Range Management
- The Corn Growers' Guidebook, Purdue University
- Weed Science Society of America
- Western Barley Growers Association
- Wheat Page, Kansas State University