Increase Funding For Climate Change Research

US - Funding from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for research on greenhouse gas mitigation in agriculture will increase by more than 10-fold, according to an announcement on 16 December, 2009, from USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.

22 December 2009

2 minute read

North America

K-State has been a national leader in this field of research, including extensive work on agricultural soil carbon sequestration, said Chuck Rice, K-State University Distinguished Professor of Agronomy and national director of the Consortium for Agricultural Mitigation of Greenhouse Gases. Rice was a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

“At K-State, we have had one of the most active research and extension programs in the country on greenhouse gas mitigation in agriculture,” Mr Rice said.

“Our work has helped establish carbon sequestration rates for no-till and grasslands used by emerging carbon markets. We also have helped establish national baselines for soil carbon levels, guidelines on carbon sequestration in cropping systems, and ways to limit nitrous oxide emissions.”

In conjunction with this work, K-State recently received part of a $20 million National Science Foundation grant that helped further establish Kansas as an internationally recognized leader in global climate change and renewable energy research.

The new increase in USDA funding for climate change research in agriculture comes as the US joined 20 other countries across the globe on 16 December, 2009 to announce the formation of the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA), an international research collaborative to combat climate change. K-State has been partnering with several countries included in Global Research Alliance, including Australia, Canada, Colombia and New Zealand.

Over the next four years, USDA will expand agricultural climate change mitigation research by $90 million and contribute this research to the GRA. The increase will raise USDA’s agricultural climate change mitigation research portfolio to more than $130 million over the next four years, up from a base level of funding of just over $10 million in fiscal year 2009. USDA’s enhanced commitment is part of a larger increase on climate change research at the Department. Overall, USDA announced that it expects to invest more than $320 million in the next four years on climate change mitigation and adaptation research for agriculture.

In conjunction with this announcement, USDA also released a new report titled “The Effects of Climate Change on US Ecosystems.” This report summarises the most recent scientific findings on how climate change will affect agricultural systems in the US and worldwide.