2. Research, Development, and Extension

Government investment in breeding and agronomic research will be critical to increasing perennial agriculture’s commercial viability.³⁴⁹ At the same time, farmers will need to be taught how to use new crops and practices.

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about agroforestry to natural resource professionals and agroforesters.³⁵¹ Despite a renewed interest in agroforestry, however, NAC’s funding has remained low, leaving it unable to match the growing need for agroforestry research, extension, and technical assistance.³⁵² NAC’s initial 1990 budget authorization of $5 million has not increased in the intervening 30 years, meaning that its funding authorization has effectively declined by more than 50% after adjusting for inflation.³⁵³ Further, NAC is a discretionary program whose actual funding has consistently been below its budget authorization. Since its creation in 1992, NAC’s budget has stayed between $1-1.9 million; its 2020 funding was below $1.4 million, less than half of its 1994 budget after adjusting for inflation.³⁵⁴ Congress should increase NAC’s funding to $10 million and make it mandatory, ensuring that farmers and ranchers have access to the tools and expertise they need to adopt agroforestry practices.

Congress should also fund regional perennial agriculture centers throughout the country to train extension agents, provide technical assistance to producers growing perennial crops, and conduct research. Developing regional expertise in perennial crops and practices will be critical to expanding perennial systems because farmers are often constrained by the ecoregions and markets within which they operate.

Research funding for perennial systems should be expanded across all major USDA research programs. In addition, Congress should create two competitive grant research programs focused exclusively on perennial agriculture. One program should be housed within the department’s primary competitive research grant program, the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI). This program should distribute at least $10 million in mandatory funding to researchers doing both basic and applied research on perennial crops and practices.³⁵⁵ Congress should also create a Perennial Agriculture Research and Education (PARE) program modeled after the highly successful SARE program to provide funding for on-farm research and efforts to increase knowledge about perennial practices among producers and extension professionals. SARE’s current funding process, which utilizes

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short-term grants, is not well-suited for perennial agriculture.³⁵⁶ Whether housed within SARE or created as an independent program, PARE would offer longer-term grants, while building in-house expertise on perennial agriculture. PARE and the perennial regional centers would work in conjunction to support groundbreaking new research, while ensuring that farmers and extension officials are able to access that research.