After scientific advances enabled by agricultural technology tripled U.S. farm productivity between 1948 and 2021, the government is reducing investment in AgTech and letting American leadership in the field lag.
“U.S. public sector spending in agriculture R&D, the majority of which is allocated from the federal government, has fallen behind other nations, declining by about a third since 2002,” according to a report on agriculture technology (AgTech) released last month. “The European Union now spends 50% more than the U.S. in agriculture research, and China’s investment outspends the U.S. 2:1.”
Entitled “Catalyzing U.S. AgTech Innovation: Opportunities for the Federal Government,” the report was produced by the Triple Helix Institute for Agriculture, Climate, and Society, a nonprofit building awareness of how AgTech can assist climate action and benefit society.
Given the lag time of around 30 years between agriculture R&D investment and actual productivity gains, the U.S. is likely to feel the impact of cutbacks far in the future and for many years, the report says.
It also notes that, even though federal funding tends to be lower than private R&D investment, it is still essential because government-funded background research may not have immediately practical application but can establish a foundation for commercial innovators to build upon.
“While private sector investment in agricultural R&D has been increasing, it has been shown to serve a complementary role and does not replace the essential functions of public sector support,” says the report.
This government investment pays back handsomely.
“The United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service found that from 1900 to 2011, every $1 in U.S. public sector agriculture R&D funding generated $20 of benefit to the U.S. economy,” the report says.
Why AgTech is needed more than ever
Agriculture needs to become more productive and sustainable to keep feeding the world.
As a letter signed by 150 Nobel and World Food Prize laureates earlier this year notes, the world faces severe threats to its food security and sustainable growth. Agricultural productivity must double by 2050 to feed the world while protecting the environment, the letter says.
According to the Triple Helix report, there are serious headwinds to achieving this goal.
“American agricultural production currently faces many challenges. From pests and diseases and severe weather events that ravage yield to volatile supply chains that affect input prices, it is necessary to develop enhanced strategies for agricultural resilience,” the report says.
Meanwhile, agriculture is driving severe environmental damage, including excess nutrients from fertilizer polluting our waterways and threats to biodiversity.
“AgTech tools like crop biotechnology and artificial Intelligence can help secure and improve American agricultural productivity while also protecting precious natural resources,” the report notes.
Some AgTech solutions
The Triple Helix report describes a few innovations in fighting plant disease, improving fertilizers and addressing drought. There is a wide range of additional areas where AgTech can make a difference, including by enabling biotechnology advances and forwarding regenerative agriculture.
Biotechnology is enabling more productive, climate-resilient agriculture while battling waste, through the use of genetic engineering, CRISPR Cas9 and other genetic technologies are helping make corn, rice, and potato crops more productive.
Biotech advances in livestock farming include gene editing to help develop birds resistant to avian flu and pigs resistant to deadly diseases. Cattle developed through gene editing to have shorter hair and greater heat tolerance can better withstand the challenges of climate change.
Regenerative agriculture involves approaches to farming that improve soil health, biodiversity, and sustainable crop production. It is considered an essential means of enabling greater food security while protecting the environment. AgTech using AI can support regenerative farming by:
- helping farmers choose regenerative farm practices that work best for them;
- analyzing huge datasets to discover actions that optimize productivity and sustainability;
- accelerating trials of new products, like biosolutions, and optimizing precision crop nutrition.
What the federal government can do
Through surveys around the country, the report’s authors identified three strategies the federal government can use to impact AgTech advancement:
- Generating foundational knowledge for agricultural innovation: Products that can change farming can be built upon better understanding of subjects like plant genomes, mechanisms of pests and diseases, microbial interactions with the soil, or weather tracking. Government labs and grants can support discovery of fundamental scientific concepts in these areas. The government can also help by facilitating data access, for example by increasing publicly managed open-sourced databases with agricultural information.
- Translating and scaling up AgTech: Innovations with the potential to translate into marketable products need support to go from the lab to the first prototype to commercial-level production. Startups can be supported with government assistance as they seek investment to cover the costs of research and development. Government backing and loan guarantees can also help encourage private investors.
- Building an efficient AgTech ecosystem: Regulation can slow development of products as they await market approval, but regulators also influence the kinds of products investors are willing to pursue. Creating a supportive innovation ecosystem requires consistent, predicable regulation from the government. The government can also support good communication between farmers and innovators, so farmers know what innovation can do for them and innovators know what farmers need. And the government can set data interoperability standards that facilitate research and development.
