The USDA is inviting additional comments on its Agricultural Innovation Agenda, this time to inform its recommendations in the area of ready-to-go innovations. You can read the USDA’s request for input here. The deadline for commenting is November 9, 2020.
What you need to know: The USDA wants to know what innovations can be readily adopted in U.S. agriculture to advance agricultural production. The department is describing an “innovation” as “any idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new or generally has low adoption.”
We encourage the seed community to communicate plant breeding, ready-to-go cultivars, and established trialing networks as essential innovations that can meet the needs of U.S. agriculture RIGHT NOW.
In particular, the USDA wants to know the following:
- How can these innovations demonstrate gains in agricultural productivity and/or reductions in U.S. agriculture’s environmental footprint?
- Can these innovations help advance carbon sequestration and greenhouse gases, water quality, food loss and waste, and renewable energy?
- How ready to go and adoptable are these innovations?
- How consistent is the innovation with the values, experiences, and needs of growers?
- How difficult is this innovation to adopt?
- What are the tangible results?
Please take a moment to make your voice heard on the role that seed plays in agricultural innovation!
Questions? Contact us.
