UA Agricultural Cooperative Extension Division
HARRISBURG — To increase funding for land grant programs for agriculture in Arkansas, we need to understand how few legislators in every county in Arkansas have ties to agriculture and understand the impact of the University of Arkansas College of Agriculture. Come to think of it, a certain amount of persuasion might be required.
“We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to be a part of the Northeast Rice Research and Extension Center,” said state Sen. Ron Caldwell of Winn, one of the speakers at the Northeast Rice Research and Extension Center’s grand opening Aug. 30. The real question for us is finding out how much money it will take to do this. ”
“There are 100 members of the House of Representatives and 35 members of the Senate, but only about 10 percent of them grow rice in their districts,” he said of the Arkansas state legislature. “In fact, of the 135 members of Congress, only one is a rice farmer: Sen. Blake Johnson of Corning.”
“We are committed to support and education,” Caldwell said. “One of the first supports we need to give is our elected officials in our legislature, because they need to understand how important rice is to our state and our nation. is.”
Arkansas is the nation’s largest rice producer, producing nearly half of the crop.
“The economic impact of rice is amazing,” he says. “As Congress, we are going to do our best to fund the Farm Bureau and extension services.”
The University of Arkansas System College of Agriculture is responsible for two of the three traditional land-grant missions. agriculture and food research through the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, and support and knowledge transfer through the Cooperative Extension Service, which has offices in all 75 counties. The third mission, education, is carried out by the Dale Bumpers College of Agriculture, Food and Life Sciences, which is part of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.
Before the grand opening ceremony, Vice President of Agriculture and Director of the Department of Agriculture DeQue Fields gave a presentation about the department, its work, funding, and return on investment to the Arkansas economy.
Fields recalled that meeting Sept. 12 when he spoke to the University of Arkansas System Board of Governors.
“Someone asked me at the meeting, ‘How does an institution with no tuition, no revenue stream, and no guarantees build an $18.5 million center?’
“This is based on our relationships, our research reputation and leveraging our resources, so our relationships with the state and the U.S. Research Advancement Council led to a $16 million investment in this center.” Fields said. “Our research reputation has led industry to partner with us and provide additional funding for the building.”
Fields said the department added $1 million to the project.
He emphasized the importance of agriculture to the state’s economy and spoke about the return on investment for the state. For example, agriculture contributes approximately $4,530 per person to the state’s economy.
“Farmers contributed $14 billion to the state’s economy last year,” Fields said, noting that figure does not include the $450 million contributed by forestry.
“From 2017 to 2022, Farmgate sales in Arkansas increased by $4.25 billion,” he said. “To put it in perspective, the entire industry in Louisiana is $4.8 billion. So our growth over five years is roughly equivalent to the entire industry in Louisiana.”
“We have been able to document that the growth of the industry is highly correlated with the research and discoveries made through the Department of Agriculture,” Fields said. “We did a benefit-cost analysis based strictly on rice. We estimate that $91 million per year goes into the economy from rice research, which is $28.5 to $1. This will be the ratio of benefit costs.
Caldwell urged his colleagues to pursue funding for the Department of Agriculture, noting that the last regular fund increase ($3 million per year) was in 2017.
“So if we were to give them an increase, it would probably be 2025 before they receive this. That would be eight years since they had an increase,” Caldwell said. . “Inflation is killing them. This is a problem we have to deal with. But Congress is going to have to take the ball and run with it.”
