SEA research on alternatives to nitrite predates the FDA-FSQS sponsored contract with the National Academy of Sciences. This agency has and is providing research information upon which the National Academy of Sciences will make its recommendation.

Mr. WHITTEN. When do you anticipate the National Academy of Sciences will complete their review and make their recommendations to you?

Dr. BERTRAND. Since this is an FSQS contract, the report will be made to that agency first. The final report and recommendations by the National Academy of Sciences is due "after completion of Parts I and II" which are themselves due on December 15, 1981 and March 15, 1982 respectively.

SCREWWORM

Mr. WHITTEN. You also state that you need to increase your knowledge of foreign animal diseases, bluetongue, screwworm, scabies, and ticks in order to reduce their threat to the livestock industry in the United States. What more do we need to know about screwworms as it affects the livestock industry in the United States? What type of resources do you intend to devote to studying screwworms here in the U.S.?

Dr. BERTRAND. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service Veterinary Services progam of screwworm eradication has had notable success in Mexico during the past year. As eradication moves further south into Mexico, new problems are encountered which require basic and applied research for their solution.

Although much of this research will be conducted in Mexico and is included in our request for support of action and regulatory requirements, the results are of direct benefit to the livestock industry of the United States by protecting our country from reinfestation. The final objective, of course, is to establish a permanent and effective barrier zone in Southern Mexico.

With the closing of the APHIS screwworm production facility in Mission, Texas, research scientists are being systematically transferred to the APHIS screwworm production facility in Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico, and the Metabolism and Radiation Research Laboratory in Fargo, North Dakota. At the North Dakota facility we intend to have 3 or 4 scientists working directly on basic problems associated with the genetic characterization of screwworms, the development of a male only strain, and the discovery of more effective screwworm attractants.

Mr. WHITTEN. You say that animal disease research in support of action and regulatory agencies will be initiated to solve problems of control or eradication on various diseases, and you again mention screwworms. What do you plan to do in this area?

Dr. BERTRAND. The needs of the APHIS-Veterinary Services program of screwworm eradication will be met by developing new, competitive screwworm strains for use in the screwworm production facility. We also plan to continue research on the screwworm adult suppression system to make sure that it is effective in all parts of Mexico, to develop a system to kill screwworm females so that males only will be mass reared, to characterize geographic populations of screwworms, to study the ecology and population dynamics of screwworms in the future barrier zone, and to develop

better attractants of screwworms for use in control and surveillance systems. Other research involving the genetics of screwworms is also planned

CONTAGIOUS EQUINE METRITIS

Mr. WHITTEN. You are proposing to eliminate your research on contagious equine metritis. Why do you feel it would be appropriate to eliminate this research at this time?

Dr. BERTRAND. The elimination of contagious equine metritis research is proposed, as it is the Department's policy to continue funding only those research projects considered most essential to the nation's agricultural and consumer needs. The last cases of contagious equine metritis in the United Sates occurred in Missouri in April 1979 and in Kentucky in March 1978. These outbreaks were limited to farms which are currently quarantined. The quarantines are expected to be lifted soon, pending a final negative examination. Department of Agriculture research has provided us with adequate means to identify, control, and eradicate the disease.

IMPORTANCE OF GENETIC RESEARCH

Mr. WHITTEN. Why are new crops and new strains of crops of importance to agriculture? What are the Department's goals related to these activities?

Dr. BERTRAND. The development of new improved varieties has been and will continue to be important to American argiculture. Most of the economic crops now grown in this country were not native but were introduced from other countries. For this reason, many of the plants introduced were not adapted to the soils or climate of this country and, as a result, there were many unanticipated disease and insect problems. Over the years, the USDA, state agricultural experiment stations, and private industry have conducted very extensive research on developing improved crop varieties for the many varied production areas of the United States. Largely because of this effort, crop yields have increased dramatically and losses to plant pests have been greatly reduced. For example, average yields for corn during the 1970's were 276 percent greater than the average yields during the 1930's. Wheat showed an increase of 136 percent.

SEA-AR has introduced over 200 new improved crop varieties or breeding lines during the last year. These include new releases of wheat, barley, oats, millet, rice, soybean, sunflower, sugarbeet, sugarcane, cotton, fruits, vegetables, and forage crops. It is difficult to estimate the economic impact of these particular releases on American agriculture but each will make an important contribution toward increasing the efficiency of crop production. For example, the new Tifton 44 bermudagrass variety introduced 3 years ago is more winter-hardy, produces a higher quality forage crop, and results in a 19 percent greater daily animal gain than the standard forage variety used in the Southeastern States. This new variety will probably be planted on a million acres of land by next year and has the potential of producing an additional 50 million pounds of beef each year than would have been possible with previous varieties.

There are other excellent examples of the value of plant breeding and the development of improved varieties. SEA-AR breeders,

in cooperation with colleagues in state agricultural experiment stations, have developed new wheat varieties that are 1.5 to 2.0 percent higher in protein than standard varieties. This allows for an improved protein diet at no additional cost to the consumer. While there is an ever-present danger of new races of wheat stem rust developing, wheat breeders have now developed varieties highly resistant to this serious disease. Without such resistance, it is estimated that production of spring wheat would be reduced by about 40 percent, and the annual savings to wheat growers from resistance to this disease alone is about $1 billion. It is estimated that varieties resistant to common smut, another wheat disease, save wheat growers $1 million in a year in the States of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.

The new Pima S-5 cotton variety, a high-yielding variety adapted to mechanical harvesting and jointly introduced with the States of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas in 1975, is now used on 99 percent of the Pima cotton acreage in the United States. Cotton from this single variety had an annual farm value of over $50 million in 1980. We also have initiated cooperative research programs to improve guayule, jojoba, and other specialty crops that might have potential as new crops. Guayule is a native plant that produces latex, which can be used as a substitute for rubber, and jojoba produces an oil with characteristics similar to the oil of the sperm whale. From preliminary data, we now know that these natural plant products can be significantly increased through the use of breeding and genetics.

Small farmers have also benefitted from the development of improved varieties. The USDA has introduced new varieties of sweet corn that are resistant to the corn earworm, disease-resistant shipping varieties of lettuce, potato varieties for the Eastern United States, and disease-resistant strawberry varieties that allow home production of strawberries throughout the Eastern and Southern States.

Changes in the nation's agriculture will create new challenges. for crop improvement research. Agricultural systems are rapidly being expanded into lands which have reduced soil fertility and which are subject to climatic extremes. As a nation, we are learning to reduce indiscriminate use of chemical pesticides and make greater use of available sources of genetic resistance to plant pests. The Department continues its concern for providing Americans with an increasing variety of high quality food crops the year round and, to the extent possible, increasing the nutritional value of all crops. There is also the need for American agriculture to help feed an increasing world population. To meet the challenges of the future, we must continue crop improvement programs which stress yield, quality, nutritional factors, pest resistance, tolerance to environmental stresses, and variety adaptation to the many different. production areas of this country.

Continuance of crop improvement programs will help the Department achieve its missions and goals relating to increased agricultural production efficiency, improved use of this country's land and water resources, improved health and nutrition of our people, increased exports of agricultural products, and improvement of our environment.

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CROP YIELDS

Mr. WHITTEN. According to page 163 of the Notes, you are requesting an increase of $12,883,000 for research on plant production efficiency. In support of this you make the statement that "Statistics continue to show increases in total crop productivity, but maximum yield levels are not increasing and our annual rate of increase of agricultural productivity appears to have declined recently." Would you please spell this out in a little greater detail and cite any figures you may have to support this statement? Dr. BERTRAND. The introduction of new improved plant varieties, improved methods of pest control, and improved cultural practices have all contributed to increasing crop yields during the last 50 years. During the last decade, however, increases in crop yields have been less pronounced. For the six major grain crops, for example, the average yearly yield increase during the period from 1930 to 1969 was 2.9 percent whereas the average yearly yield increase during the 1970's was only 1.4 percent. The average yearly increase for corn dropped from 4.4 percent to 2.1 percent, from 2.6 percent to 1.8 percent for wheat, from 2.5 percent to 1.4 percent for rye, from 2.4 percent to 1.5 percent for barley, from 2.0 percent to 0.8 percent for oats, and from 2.6 percent to 0.9 percent for rice. There are similar reductions in the rate of increased yield for other crops.

There are several reasons for this apparent plateauing of crop yields. More marginal land is also being brought into production which reduces the average production figures. Increased rates of fertilizer application often will increase crop yields but with the increasing cost of chemical fertilizers, it may not be economical for farmers to strive for maximum yields. Even though we can predict still further increases in crop yields, there obviously is a theoretical upper limit of yield with our present production systems. We may be approaching this upper limit on some of our crops, but there may be future breakthroughs in the areas of photosynthetic efficiency, mechanisms of gene transfer and new production systems.

TROPICAL AND SUBTROPICAL RESEARCH

Mr. WHITTEN. You are requesting an increase of $1,160,000 for tropical and subtropical research. You say this increase will be used to support existing research programs at various locations. Would you please spell out for the record the work that is being carried on by the Mayaguez Institute of Tropical Agriculture at Mayaguez, Puerto Rico?

Dr. BERTRAND. The research program of SEA-AR at the Mayaguez Institute of Tropical Agriculture-MITA-covers an array of agricultural problems related to U.S. needs in the temperate zone and in the tropics. MITA also has an important international role in developing and providing technology that will assist developing countries to strengthen their own food production capabilities. Much of this research is conducted cooperatively with the University of Puerto Rico Agricultural Experiment Station at Mayaguez. MITA operates winter nurseries for increases and for conversion of tropical crop germplasm to temperate types useful throughout the U.S. These activities on corn, sorghum, pearl millet, rice, peanuts,

cotton, soybean, forage legumes, dry beans, and other vegetables provide a unique opportunity to breeders in the U.S. to speed the development of new lines, hybrids and varieties by halving the time needed to develop a new variety.

In addition, active research projects at MITA that are related to broader needs of the United States are as follows: Breeding tropical sorghum and corn; bean improvement for disease resistance and for high protein and nutritional efficiency; breeding multiple disease resistant cowpeas and the improvement of other grain legumes for the tropics; evaluation of tropical species for the production of leaf proteins for feed; the introduction, evaluation, propagation, distribution, and popularization of the best and often neglected tropical fruits and nuts; evaluation of okra seed as a new protein-oil crop; breeding and cultural research on sweet potatoes and other tropical root crops and vegetables; and development of cropping and production systems of special use to the small farmer. MITA in cooperation with the American Cacao Research Institute established and maintains a disease-free collection of cacao. The experiment station_maintains other collections of spices, tropical fruits and nuts, and ornamental species.

The Tropical Tick Research Laboratory, a sub-unit of the U.S. Livestock Insects Laboratory, Kerrville, Texas, has recently been established at MITA to provide necessary research information and support to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which has initiated a cooperative program with the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico to eradicate ticks from the island.

Mr. WHITTEN. You also plan to initiate work to meet the specific needs of American Samoa, Micronesia, and Guam and the Northern Marianas. Please describe where this work will be done and the type of work you plan to undertake.

Dr. BERTRAND. Research will be conducted at, and in close cooperation with, the Agricultural Experiment Station in Guam, and the two new Agricultural Experiment Stations in American Samoa and Micronesia, and in the Northern Marianas. Scientists from SEA-AR and other state agricultural experiment stations will closely interact with agricultural scientists at these locations. Research will be on the improvement of tropical food crops and livestock production and protection. Also included will be research on soil and water management practices for tropical soils that will increase fertility, reduce erosion, and provide long-term productivity.

BIOLOGICAL CONTROL OF INSECT AND WEED PESTS

Mr. WHITTEN. In connection with biological control you state that there are about 30 examples in the United States in which biological control has solved insect and weed problems. Would you please spell out for the record each of these 30 instances?

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