usda-ars assessment and customer workshop

USDA-ARSAssessment and Customer

Workshop

Nathan Danielson

Director Biotechnology and Business Development

National Corn Growers Association

Who is the NCGA?

• A federation of 25 grower affiliate associations

• 20 checkoff boards

• 33,000 members representing 300,000 U.S. corn growers

NCGA’s vision

• Leading a Unified and Dynamic Corn Industry to New Opportunities in the 21st Century

NCGA believes in research

• NCGA has supported research since its inception in 1954

• Corn growers support millions of dollars of research annually through check-off contributions

• NCGA took a leading role in getting the Plant Genome Initiative signed into law and continues to support this important effort

• Last year the NCGA joined the Coalition for National Science Funding

Research has impressive benefits to agriculture

• Studies indicate that the return on public investment for agricultural research is between 40-60% per year

• These studies indicate that there is a greater return for basic science than for applied

• Multiple studies have supported these conclusions

Changes in agricultureproductivity and input

Some statistics for corn

Challenges facing growers

• Creating better food• Creating better animal feed• Increasing industrial uses will demand

both additional qualities and quantities of corn

• Expanding fuel production from corn• Environmental challenges

Wish list

• Drought tolerance

• Nitrogen fixation

• Increased tolerance to pathogens

• Higher photosynthetic activity

• Control of gene flow

How to address these challenges

• Complete corn genome• New genomic, proteomic and metabolomic

tools• Better understanding of basic biology of

other organisms • Developing corn that better utilizes nutrients

and other resources• Understanding Host-Pathogens interactions

NCGA supports the completion of the corn genome

• NCGA believes completion of the maize genome will:– Increase the efficiency of breeding programs– Streamline the delivery of new traits– Allow the discovery and enhancement of innate properties

of corn, e.g. drought tolerance– Allow the recognition and understanding of traits that will

allow corn to be an ideal crop for food, feed, fuel and industrial uses

– Further decrease the environmental impact of production farming

– Allow research to be conducted in corn that is currently being done in Arabidopsis

A completed genome will help us address the challenges our industry faces

How USDA-ARS can help

• Clearly USDA-ARS programs are well aligned with grower needs, however:

• Increased outreach would be helpful

• The amount of overhead that USDA ARS can pay may need to be reassessed

• If we want the research that we conduct to have the most value to consumers, then we need to educate consumers to the value that this research offers them.

Future

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