NDSU experiment station urges funding for research, facilities and new data initiatives in SB 2020 hearing

Lawmakers heard more than three hours of testimony Thursday on the State Board of Agricultural Research and Education’s (SBARE) funding priorities, a package of programmatic and capital requests that supporters say are essential to North Dakota agriculture’s economy and future competitiveness.

SBARE chair Sarah Hall Lovas, an agronomist from Hillsboro, told the Government Operations Division of the Senate Appropriations Committee that the board’s stakeholder-driven priority list supports both the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station and NDSU Extension and “there is no better investment for a state dollar than into agriculture research and extension.”

The priority list presented by NDSU and SBARE asks the Legislature to fund a mix of program positions, operating support, graduate assistantships and several capital projects. Among the highest-ranked program requests are funding to establish a Center for Agricultural Policy and Trade Studies ($975,000 for three FTEs), a digital-technology initiative to accelerate precision and “digital agriculture” research (staff and operating support), a veterinary toxicology resident at the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory ($325,000), expanded operating and equipment budgets and additional research specialists statewide.

“Much like our national championship football team, agricultural research at NDSU brings a national championship level of effort to the state of North Dakota as well,” said Greg Lardy, director of the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station, describing the range of work from livestock health to plant breeding and data analytics.

Why it matters: testifiers emphasized the economic stakes. Witnesses cited a recent study showing agriculture’s contribution to the state…