“Research is not a luxury that we have,” says Dr. Kelly Turner, executive director of the Michigan Potato Industry Commission. Instead, it is a necessity to keep Michigan agricultural operations profitable, she says.
Research done at Michigan State University’s AgBioResearch program plays a big role in that effort for all growers, including potato growers. Unfortunately, recent federal actions and changes in grant funding have hit the program just as it has research efforts and USDA-funded programs around the country.
“As federal funding gets cut or truncated, or even delayed, it has a real impact on potato research,” Turner says, explaining that potato breeding efforts are often time-consuming. And research, once halted, can’t just be picked back up again due to the short storage lifespan of potatoes compared to other crops’ seeds.
“So, when we have gaps in research, it pushes us back decades from where we could be and should be,” she says.
Lost, Delayed Funding Hurts Potatoes
“It’s a tremendous time of uncertainty for our faculty engaged in research and agriculture,” says Dr. George Smith, director of MSU’s AgBioResearch program.
One of the biggest recent blows to MSU researchers was the administration’s closure of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). This meant the cancellation of $20 million in research funding at MSU through USAID. This funding loss ended several agricultural research programs, including the Feed the Future Global Biotech Potato Partnership.
While the program aimed to benefit farmers in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kenya and Nigeria by developing potato varieties through biotechnology resistant to late blight — the disease that caused the Irish Potato Famine and is still an issue today — the research would have also benefited U.S. growers. Turner says the loss of the program is “definitely felt here in Michigan as well as across the nation.”
Smith adds that the funding freeze that happened earlier this year also had a negative impact, though grant money for some projects eventually came through.
“For some of our faculty, especially those working in plant based agriculture — growing food crops that are relevant in Michigan and beyond — they lost a whole growing season through lack of funding,” he says.
Smith anticipates that the new review rules for federal grantmaking will slow the research funding process down going forward. But he also voiced optimism for what they are doing at MSU, seeing it as in line with the administration’s goals to help farmers be more productive, to help them deal with the challenges they face and to help strengthen rural communities.
“The work we do is focused on that,” he says.
Industry Partnership Through Project GREEEN
AgBioResearch’s Project GREEEN is one such example. Smith describes the 27-year-old program as a unique effort that takes a holistic, integrated approach to public-private partnerships in ag research.
“All of our plant based agricultural community partners in Project GREEEN have the opportunity, every year, to list their top priorities,” he explains. These priorities address short-term challenges facing agricultural sectors and are included in requests for proposals. Industry partners help researchers write grants to address those priorities so that that the on-the-ground impact is kept front and center.
For potatoes, for example, these short-term priorities include the following:
- Monitoring and managing insecticide resistance in Colorado Potato Beetle.
- Developing management methods for Potato Virus Y, Mop Top Virus, and Tobacco Rattle.
- Developing new varieties genetically resistant to pressing challenges such as Colorado Potato Beetle and Late Blight.
- Improving tools and growing methods to increase water use efficiency, improve aquifer recharge, and reduce nutrient runoff.
Smith says that in the first 20 years of the program, the economic benefit to the state overall was over $2.5 billion.
“The annual funding for project green is a little over $5 million,” he adds. “So that’s a pretty good return on investment. That’s a direct reflection of the work we do.”
The Michigan Potato Industry Commission partners with AgBioResearch on Project GREEEN, directly funding research and partially funding a position-and-a-half at MSU’s potato outreach program, Turner says. She describes the partnership as helping to build the entire research pipeline to focus on the needs of Michigan’s potato industry on the ground.
“We have events where the seed growers, the researchers, the potato growers, the processors and the end users come together and they talk about what they like about different varieties, where their pinch points are and what needs they have in the future,” she explains “We take a look at those varieties, and if they don’t work for everybody in that pipeline and through that entire supply chain, then they don’t work.”
Turner says that, while hundreds of potato varieties are considered, few make it to commercialization. Though it can be time-consuming, the process produces valuable results for everyone involved, she says.
“The growers can be profitable and produce a highly nutritious product that works well for the processors,” she says. “Then they can turn around a good quality product that ends up in consumers’ homes where they have the best potato that’s available through modern science.”
The Importance of Research for Future Potatoes
The benefits of AgBioResearch’s work on potatoes has already had a big impact on the industry. Smith points to the variety breeding work done by David Douches, who has released dozens of varieties during his tenure at MSU, including varieties with a longer shelf life.
“Breeding potatoes that have a better storage capacity results in being able to process Michigan potatoes for a longer period of time without having to rely on importing potatoes from other states,” Smith explains. The impacts on the industry have been huge, he adds, benefiting growers and processors, and positively impacting jobs and revenues.
“That was all possible through an investment in research and funding through a whole host of sources, including the USDA, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and USAID,” he says.
Turner says the future needs of the Michigan potato industry include keeping up with storage diseases and looking to a future where inputs like water and fertilizer are in shorter supply. These are things research can and is working on.
Both Smith and Turner stress the importance of keeping produce production in the U.S. and profitable, calling it a national security concern. Potatoes, in particular, are important since they are stable crops both in the U.S. and abroad.
“If we are not growing potatoes here in the United States, they are going to come from other countries,” Turner says.
In a similar vein, Smith notes that over half of the fresh fruit consumed in the U.S. is imported already, with expectations of it increasing significantly in the next few years.
“We’re committed to doing the research to solve the problems to help our produce specialty crop growers in Michigan be able to be profitable in the face of extreme weather and new emerging pests and pathogens,” he says. “Research is the solution to those problems.”
He also opines that the U.S. is falling behind in agricultural research, whereas major competitors like China, the European Union and South American countries are growing their investments in research.
“We have always led the world in terms of agricultural innovation, and it’s more important than ever to do that,” he adds. “But that requires a federal investment.”
Your next read:
