DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



A. R. Bird, Economic Research Service (ERS); L.L. Jansen, Agricultural 

 Research Service (ARS); D.B. Johnson, Forest Service (FS): and J.C. Wil- 

 liamson, Cooperative State Research Service (CSRS) constituted a special 

 work group that developed this report. D.J. Ward, Office of the Secretary, 

 had general responsibility for arranging for the response to the National 

 Science Board request. 



The work group members were assisted by special committees or 

 groups drawn from national staffs within their respective agencies. Inputs 

 representing cooperating State agricultural research organizations were 

 provided by the technical staff of the Cooperative State Research Service. 

 G.C. Taylor participated in the work group at times for ERS. TS. Ronnin- 

 gen for CSRS, and R.G. Krebill for FS. J.R. Myers of the Current Research 

 Information System (CRIS) served as consultant to the work group. 



Mission of the Department of 

 Agriculture 



Broadly stated, the research mission for the 

 publicly supported agricultural research system is: 

 To increase scientific knowledge and to produce 

 technical information and technical products that 

 will contribute to the development and mainte- 

 nance in the United States of permanent and ef- 

 fective agricultural and forestry industries, in 

 their broadest aspects; the development and im- 

 provement of the rural home and rural life; the 

 contribution of agriculture and forestry to the 

 welfare of the American people and their environ- 

 ment; and the promotion of human welfare and 

 world peace. Agricultural and forestry research 

 will give due regard to the varying conditions in 

 all the regions of the Nation and to the needs of 

 the people in all the States and Territories. 



The United States Department of Agriculture 

 (USDA) was established by the Organic Act of 

 1862. Through authorizing legislation in the Hatch 

 Act of 1887, the Adams Act of 1906. the Purnell 

 Act of 1925, the McSweeney-McNary Act of 

 1928, the Bankhead- Jones Act of 1935, the Agri- 

 cultural Marketing Act of 1946, the Agricultural 

 Trade and Development and Assistance Act of 

 1954, Public Law 89-106 (Special Grants Act) of 

 1965, the Rural Development Act of 1972, and the 

 Mclntire-Stennis Act of 1962, the USDA has es- 

 tablished research cooperation with and funding 

 support of the State Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tions (SAES), State forestry schools, the colleges 

 of 1890, and the Tuskegee Institute. 



Six agencies in the Department conduct or fund 

 research in the context of the above research mis- 

 sion, although their research function is more 

 formally documented as supportive activities of 

 one or more of the Department's missions. All 

 activities of the Department are now covered 

 under 1 1 broad missions that characterize the 

 Department's role in solving broad, national prob- 

 lems. Mission-oriented research is conducted by 

 the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the 

 Economic Research Service (ERS), Farmer Coop- 

 erative Service (FCS), Forest Service (FS), Statis- 

 tical Reporting Service (SRS). and cooperating 

 State research organizations funded through the 

 Cooperative State Research Service (CSRS). Ba- 

 sic research is conducted as an integral part of the 

 Department's research programs. 



The research arms of the State agencies and in- 

 stitutions, together with the USDA research agen- 

 cies, are the publicly supported agricultural re- 

 search system. The structure and relationship 

 among the major performing organizations are 

 described in detail later on. 



The distribution of research among the per- 

 forming organizations (Table 1) clearly reflects the 

 major roles played by ARS and SAES in agricul- 

 tural research and by FS in forestry research. The 

 distribution of effort by science categories (Table 

 2) shows the heavy concentration of research 

 among biological sciences, with those that are 

 plant-oriented accounting for a major part. USDA 

 research ranges from one-fourth to one-third of 

 total effort in biological research. Except for 

 some social sciences, levels of USDA research 

 exceed or are at least equal to State efforts in 



AGRICULTURE 3 



