A study, “Power and Promise: Agbioscience in the North Central United States,” finds that agriculture and agricultural bioscience (agbioscience) are providing wide-ranging opportunities for economic growth and job creation in the U.S.

The study by the Battelle Co. notes that agbioscience professionals at U.S. land-grant institutions, such as North Dakota State University, are leveraging advancements in modern science and technology to address crucial national and global needs, including agricultural productivity and food security; improved human health; renewable resource development, such as bioenergy and biobased materials; and environmental sustainability.

“Agriculture is and will continue to be the foundation of North Dakota’s economy,” says D.C. Coston, NDSU Vice President for Agriculture and University Extension. “Bioscience research has placed additional floors on this foundation by reducing the costs of producing agricultural commodities and creating additional premiums through value-added processing.”

The North Central region of the U.S. is positioned to fulfill the promise of new product development and job growth around modern agbioscience, according to the study.

“Many of the most pressing challenges have solutions rooted in modern agriculture and agbioscience,” says Simon Tripp, lead author of the study for Battelle. “There is no other arena of economic activity or field of science and innovation that so directly addresses human survival and quality of life, global economic development, and prospects for an environmentally sustainable future.”

The Battelle study notes that the land-grant system has played a central role in the rise of American agriculture to global pre-eminence, and the tremendous scale of opportunities contained in a fast-expanding, biobased, 21st century economy warrant considerably more attention be paid to these core institutions.

“This study clearly shows the importance of agricultural research and Extension that takes place at land-grant universities,” says Ken Grafton, NDSU College of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Natural Resources dean and North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station director. “The research and Extension work has an enormous economic impact in North Dakota, the region and the world.”

Sustained or expanded federal, state and local support will help the land-grant institutions, experiment stations and Extension education system continue to perform its multifaceted functions in cutting-edge research for commercialization, worker education, supply of trusted information, support for farmers and processors, and the pursuit of opportunities for new collaborations and networks to expand the industry, according to the study.

With just 6.1 percent of the world’s land area, the U.S. in 2009 through 2010 produced 18.7 percent of the world’s grains and 22.4 percent of global oilseeds, and is the world leader in beef (20.8 percent) and poultry (23.2 percent) production.

The North Central region is made up of 12 states: North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. The North Central region produces 45 percent of the country’s agricultural exports and more than 80 percent of key exports, such as soybeans and feed grains, and more than 60 percent of meat and livestock exports.

In addition to the more than 800,000 farms in the region, the report finds that the North Central region has more than 88,000 companies in the agribusiness value-added chain through the manufacturing of products and services. Together, these farms and industries employ almost 2.4 million people with an economic output of $125 billion. On average, the pay is $2,600 more per job than the average pay level for other private-sector workers in the region.

The report concludes by noting that agbiosciences represent an opportunity for the U.S. to expand on U.S. leadership in a biobased, sustainable, resource-driven economy with wide ranging innovation and technology-based development opportunities.

The full report is available online at http://nccea.org/documents/powerandpromiseweb.pdf.

NDSU Agriculture Communication