Development and introduction of new crops could enhance economic stability in American agriculture and rural communities in ways that six decades of costly federal subsidy and crop reduction programs have failed to do.
As related in this column a week ago, that’s the recommendation of the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology, a consortium of 31 scientific societies. In a position paper, “Diversifying U.S. Crop Production,” a council task force says that, among other things, new crops would help relieve farmers’ dependency on corn, wheat, and soybeans, which are 80 percent of annual row crops in the U.S.
“New crops offer alternative means of increasing farm income by diversifying products, expanding markets, increasing exports, decreasing imports, improving human and livestock diets, and creating new industries based on renewable agricultural resources,” the task force said.
Potential new crop industrial uses include biofuels, lubricants, industrial chemicals, waxes, and rubber. Promising crops include crambe, cuphea, guayule, jojoba, lesquerella, vernonla, meadowfoam, and Stokes aster.
Other new crops represent potential sources of new human foods and livestock feeds, and new medicinal crops.
The new farm bill that Congress passed last week and sent to the White House gives farmers more flexibility to plant whatever crops they think will be to their economic advantage. But it’s going to take more than that to develop and introduce new crops, the task force pointed out.
“The private sector is discouraged from sponsoring research and development efforts in new crops since introduction often requires 10 to 40 years or longer,” the task force said. “Crop introduction often is inherently risky.
“Bottlenecks include problems with production, crop availability, and market forces. Finally, growers ordinarily are not interested in new crops without an assured market, and marketers will not handle new crops without an assured supply.”
The task force made these recommendations to help agricultural diversity:
– The Agriculture Department should examine how to support new crops development through policies and programs and request from Congress either additional funding or redirection of current funding.
– Development incentives should include crop insurance for new crops, guaranteed loans for some, a system of grants for interested farmers and small businesses, permission to grow new crops on idled land, and the release of new publicly supported cultivars to individuals and institutions devoted to new crops.
– A new crop initiative tentatively named the Jefferson Initiative should be created to become the focal program and voice for new crops development and to serve as an umbrella organization for many types of public-private partnerships aimed at commercialization.
– An innovative research and development entity tentatively named the Jefferson Institute should be created to provide the resources needed to strategically boost new crops to a self-sustaining level.
