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statement by 



Susan E. Offutt 



Executive Director 



Board on Agriculture, National Research Council 



before the 



Subcommittee on Department Operations and Nutrition 



House Committee on Agriculture 



25 March 1993 



Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for 

 the opportunity to testify during your review of current 

 agricultural research and education priorities. My remarks 

 address funding support for agricultural research through 

 competitive grants, and the new study on the role of the colleges 

 of agriculture and the land grant university system that is being 

 undertaken by the Board on Agriculture. 



The relation between agriculture and public research 

 institutions in land grant universities and federal agencies has 

 been a long and beneficial one. Widely credited as the engine 

 that has driven the substantial achievements of American farmers, 

 the nation's agricultural research system has, with growing 

 frequency, been cited as a model in the design of similar 

 research and development partnerships for other parts of the 

 industrial base. However, it diminishes none of the achievements 

 of the past to suggest that the agricultural, food, and 

 environmental system should now concentrate on its future. 



Funding Agricultural Resaareh 



Of concern is the mechanism by which agricultural research 

 is funded. Sustained over a century by federal formula grants 

 matched by state contributions, the system has more recently 

 experimented with competitive grants. In 1989, the Board on 

 Agriculture of the National Research Council made a proposal to 

 mobilize the nation's scientific and engineering communities to 

 advance the quality of agriculture, the food supply, and the 



Susan E. Offutt, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Board on 

 Agriculture, Washington, D.C. The Board on Agriculture is one of 

 ten major units within the National Research Council. The 

 Council is the principal operating agency of the National Academy 

 of Sciences. 



