USA
March 25, 2026

USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture has awarded $10.2 to fund 18 projects that support public breeding efforts to improve crop productivity, efficiency, quality, and performance. The Agriculture and Food Research Initiative’s Plant Breeding for Agricultural Production program area priority (A1141) (supports a wide variety of research on and utilization of desirable traits such as increased nutrient use efficiency; tolerance to drought, flood, and temperature extremes; resistance to pests and diseases; improved nutrition; and removal of undesirable traits using both traditional genetic approaches and bioengineering. The priority also supports theoretical, phenomic, and genomic research with the aim of increasing breeding efficiency to realize genetic gains across various environments. 

 2024 Awardees: 

• HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology
• Iowa State University
• Kansas State University (2)
• New Mexico State University
• North Carolina State University
• Oklahoma State University
• Purdue University
• South Dakota State University
• Texas Tech University
• University of Arkansas
• University of California, Davis (2)
• University of Florida (2)
• University of Georgia
• University of Tennessee
• USDA Agricultural Research Service. 

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Published: March 26, 2026