JUSTIFICATION OF INCREASES AND DECREASES
An increase of $17,994,000 under the formula provisions of the Hatch Act as
Follows: ($128,615,000 available in 1981).
An increase of $12.475,000 for increased operating costs.
Need for Change: Recent studies have shown that the effectiveness of
research is enhanced by intimate knowledge of the characteristics of
the production area, close interactions among the researchers and the
research users, and adaptive research and verification at outlying
field locations. Each of the State Agricultural Experiment Stations
has developed research expertise to match the profile of its State's
agriculture. Research conducted by State scientists has been
equivalent to and cooperative with that performed by Federal
researchers in contributing to the high level and efficiency of food
and fiber production, while reducing environmental and food safety
dangers. The cost per unit of research conducted by State Agricultural
Experiment Stations continues to increase due to inflation.
increase results from increased costs of salaries and benefits,
services, supplies, materials, and equipment.
Nature of Change: This increase in formula funding for the State Agricultural Experiment Stations provides for salary and non-salary operating cost increases.
An increase of $3,427,000 for an expanded research program under the
Hatch Act.
Need for Change: Increased funding for support of this research program is needed to expand state and local capability to address basic or applied research needs in the most effective manner.
Nature of Change: This increase would fund expanded program support for high priority basic and applied research needs identified for the State or region.
(c) An increase of $1,292,000 for integrated pest management research.
Need for Change: The objective of this research is to develop system
approaches to managing pests built upon sound ecological principles to
assure reliable long-term productivity of farms and forests, conserve
energy, and preserve the environment from pollutants.
Recent developments in pest management system approaches have provided
methodology to optimize interdisciplinary pest management and
production practices for insects, bacteria, fungi, viruses, nematodes,
weeds, snails, birds, rodents and other organisms. These approaches
can largely overcome serious problems associated with current
practices, including environmental pollution, pest resistance to
pesticides and the development of biotypes of pests that can overcome
the genes for resistance bred into crops and livestock. These problems
are increasingly making crop and livestock protection more expensive
and less stable. Current losses due to pests are more than 30 percent
of potential yield before harvest and 10 percent loss after harvest
amounting to $30 billion annually. In addition, the current cost of
pest control is $10 billion annually and increasing due to inflation
and the impact of regulations that are designed to protect human health
and the environment.
Nature of Change: Research will be initiated after site-specific planning and priorities are developed in concert with State and Federal research, State extension, and resident instruction. Other Federal, State and private research and action agencies will join in the process on a specific need basis. The program is designed to systematically evaluate the numerous pest, production, economic and sociological factors that impinge upon an agricultural and forestry production system. The program will identify and quantify numerous interactions within the production system to guide the development of optimum pest management strategies. The focus of the planning activity will be in the four USDA/SAES regions and the research will be undertaken in the participatory States working on coordinated plans. SEA-Cooperative Research will fund experiment station research developed in the regional planning activity in concert with SEA-Agricultural Research. This funding will increase support of the base IPM program which is augmented by the special grant program, contracts and other granting organizations. The SAES leadership working with SEA/AR have defined priority production systems that will receive first attention. These production systems include semiarid dryland and irrigated agroecosystems in the Western region; for ages, fruits, vegetables, and urban environs in the Northeastern region; field crops, potatoes, vegetables, and urban environs in the Northcentral region; and soybean, vegetables, turf and ornamentals, peanuts, and livestock in the Southern region.
(d) An increase of $800,000 for acid precipitation research.
Need for Change: Acidity of atmospheric precipitation has been
increasing in recent years and is the suspected cause of serious
environmental damage in many parts of the world. Mountain lakes in New
York have become devoid of fish partly because of acid precipitation.
Adverse effects on crops and forests are suspected. The current USDA
program centers around the National Atmospheric Deposition program, Hatch
Regional Research Project NC-141, initiated in 1977 to study changes in
atmospheric deposition (including acid precipitation) and its effects
on agricultural systems. The initial effort has been a network of
measurement sites to establish trends in the occurrence and degree of
atmospheric deposition. The next step is to determine the effects of
acid precipitation on agricultural systems. Funding through SEA/CR and
SEA/AR is needed to direct studies to questions of primary concern to
agriculture and to provide sound information for policy making in
agriculture. An additional Hatch regional research project includes
research to reduce the harmful effects of acid precipitation on
agricultural productivity.
Nature of Change: Current research on the effects of acid precipitation is limited. Increased funding for coordinated SEA/CR and SEA/AR research directed towards developing a better understanding of the effects of acid precipitation will serve as a basis for efforts to ameliorate harmful effects. The funding increase would broaden and accelerate research on this problem. The primary thrust would be research on the effects of acid precipitation on agricultural systems. This would include effects on the growth and productivity of major crop plants, predisposition of plants to stress, and effects on the chemistry and biology of soils. There would also be increased support for the monitoring network on trends and spatial distribution of acid precipitation.
An increase of $1,507,000 for Cooperative Forestry Research as follows:
($10,774,000 available in 1981).
(a) An increase of $1,045,000 for increased operating costs.
Increased costs of maintaining the current level of activity of the cooperative forestry research at the State Agricultural Experiment Stations and Schools of Forestry result from the annual rate of inflation. This results in the need for additional resources to fund increased costs of salaries and benefits, services, supplies, materials, equipment, and other operating costs.
This increase provides for additional Federal
funding of the Cooperative Forestry Research program to ameliorate the affect of inflation on program costs.
(b) An increase of $462,000 for an expanded cooperative forestry research program.
Need for Change: Increased funding for support of this forestry research program is needed to expand the State and local capability to address basic or applied research needs in the most effective manner.
Nature of Change: This increase would fund broad program support
for high priority basic and applied research needs identified for the
State or region.
An increase of $2,722,000 for research at the Colleges of 1890 and Tuskegee
Institute as follows: ($19,270,000 available in 1981).
An increase of $1,869,000 for increased operating costs.
Need for Change: Increased costs of maintaining the current level of activity of the 1890 Institutions and Tuskegee Institute result from the annual rate of inflation. This increase results from increased costs of salaries and benefits, services, supplies, materials, equipment, and other increased operating costs. The inflationary pressures of the economy have increased the cost per unit of research conducted. This increase will allow the research programs at the 1890 Institutions and Tuskegee Institute to continue at a level comparable to last year.
Nature of Change: This increase provides funds for increased salary and non-salary operating costs of the research programs of the 1890 institutions and Tuskegee Institute.
(b) An increase of $853,000 for an expanded research program.
Need for Change: Increased funding for support of this research
program is needed to expand State and local capability to address basic
or applied research needs in the most effective manner.
Nature of Change: This increase would fund expanded program support for high priority basic and applied research needs identified for the State or region.
(4) A net increase of $2,439,000 for Special Research Grants as follows: ($17,076,000 available in 1981).
(a) An increase of $1,205,000 for Special Research Grants for increased operating costs.
Need for Change: The Special Research Grant program is designed to
provide accelerated solutions to high priority food and agricultural
problems. Rising operating costs essential to this research have
reduced the scope of accomplishments and effectiveness of this program.
Program effectiveness under Special Research Grants is especially
vulnerable to inflation because project budgets are planned and lump
sum awards are made to cover research of several year's duration. This
increase will make allowance for inflationary costs anticipated over
the duration of Special Research Grant projects and permit high
priority issues to be addressed at a level commensurate with the
Nation's needs without sacrificing program effectiveness.
Nature of Change: Under the Special Research Grant program, colleges
and universities with food and agricultural research capability are
eligible for grants. Recipients are responsible for carrying out
specific research assignments mutually agreed upon with the Department.
This increase will provide offset for inflationary costs anticipated by
these institutions in conducting research essential to Department
programs.
(b) An increase of $1,600,000 for Special Research Grants for development of integrated pest management systems by a consortium of 15 State Agricultural Experiment Stations affiliated with and-grant universities. ($1,500,000 was available in 1981.)
Need for Change: There is a need to develop integrated pest management systems useful for important crop groupings on a national basis. Reliance on a single tactic for pest control is no longer adequate for controlling pests to assure high quantity and quality farm produce. This 15 university consortium for the development of integrated pest management systems was initiated in FY 1980. The responsibility for funding the 15 university consortium on integrated pest management systems was jointly shared with the Environmental Protection Agency in FY 1981.
Nature of Change. Federal research fund support for the 15 university
consortium on integrated pest management systems will now reside with
the USDA. This program will continue the efforts of the 15 university
consortium scientists to improve predictive models and develop advanced
integrated systems for control of single or multiple pest complexes for
alfalfa, apples, cotton and soybeans.
(c) An increase of $500,000 for Special Research Grants for biological
control of pests no funds available in 1981).
Need for Change: Biological control is a promising method of dealing
with serious pest problems and is the cornerstone of IPM systems.
This
method has demonstrated outstanding accomplishments when adequate
research has been focused on a problem. There are about 30 examples in
the U.S. in which biological control has solved insect plant diseases
and weed problems without the need for any supplemental control with
pe. icides or other methods. Payoff in biological control research has
been shown to thirty-fold in California where the State has
supported sizeable biological control research programs. This tactic
shows great promise for improving the environment and agricultural
productivity especially when interacted with host plant resistance.
Action and regulatory agencies are increasingly aware of biological
control components to offset environmental constraints placed on
current chemical control practices.
Nature of Change: Research on biological control will be carried out
through the special research grants program in support of the four
regional IPM systems programs and the eight SAES/SEA-CR biological
control regional projects. Research will be directed towards the develop-
ment of improved biological control practices for insects, diseases,
nematodes, weeds and other pests. Studies will include identification
of new biological control agents and learning their genetic and
physiological characteristics, development of biological control
principles for the manipulation of pest populations, and distribution
of biological control agents as part of overall management and
production systems.
(d) An increase of $400,000 for Special Research Grants for food quality and safety research no funds available in 1981).
Need for Change: The public is becoming increasingly concerned over
the quality and safety of the food supply. In addition to the usual
concerns for the effects of processing on nutritive value,
bacteriological quality, wholesomeness and esthetic quality, concerns
over safety relate to naturally occurring toxicants, inadvertant
residues of toxic materials and food additives which may be potential
health hazards. Regardless of whether the hazard is real or imagined,
one result of the public concern is increased pressure on action and
regulatory agencies to take regulatory action relative to public health
issues. Frequently, sufficient information about the public health
issue is not available for wise action. When this occurs, action and
regulatory agencies place demands for needed scientific information
upon the scientific community and its research programs. Finally,
unnecessary regulation is restrictive to progress and the costs of
regulation can be excessive.
While on-going research programs are addressing the problems of food
safety, toxicology and quality, the effort is not large enough to
provide timely answers. Expansion and strengthening of these vital
research programs is needed. Research programs can play a major role
in providing basic information useful in allaying undue public concern
for the safety and wholesomeness of the food supply. These studies
also respond to the needs of local, State and Federal regulatory and
action agencies.
Nature of Change: Specific studies will be directed to determine the
chemical, physical, microbiological and organoleptic properties of
food, as well as the safety of agricultural products and commodities.
Problems in the area of food toxicology will receive special emphasis.
In recent years, nitrite has been shown to react with secondary amines
(that exist naturally or can be formed from natural components in meats
and other foods) to form potentially carcinogenic nitrosamines.
Research will be directed toward finding out how nitrosamines are
formed chemically and how they can be detected. Alternatives to the
use of nitrite as an anticlostridial agent will be sought. Other
research will seek to determine the effects of pH, salt content heat,
and muscle type on residual nitrite and flavor in cured meat.
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