Research Initiative Available Online

From determining a pesticide’s efficacy to creating salt- or disease-tolerant crops, research and development are the combined backbone of the green and agricultural industries. With sufficient funding, researchers can make significant R&D strides and the turfgrass industry is hoping the U.S. government will help in its endeavors as well.

“Turfgrass is a major crop,” expressed Kevin Morris, executive director of the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (NTEP), Beltsville, Md. “We have 50 million acres or so in the United States and we just don’t have the scientific knowledge available. It hasn’t been done because there hasn’t been any money.”

To remedy the situation, NTEP, along with the United Stated Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) recently completed a lengthy proposal for a $32.4 million program. The National Turfgrass Research Initiative, the goal of which is to educate legislators, administrators and others of the value of the turfgrass industry, is now available for review in hard copy or on the Internet. The proposal is currently being considered for inclusion in the federal budget for fiscal year 2004.

“Our first step is to get some funding put into the first draft of the appropriations bill,” Morris explained. “We hope within the next month or so it will be decided what’s going into the bill.” Created by the appropriations subcommittee on agriculture, the first draft of the appropriations bill will then be considered by the Appropriations Committee, followed by the U.S. House of Representatives as well as the U.S. Senate. Both bodies will make changes they feel are necessary and these changes will be reconciled to form a final Appropriations Bill for the president’s approval.

Additionally, the USDA has agreed to propose their own budget increases for fiscal year 2005 to benefit the Initiative. Morris explained that 2/3 of the money ultimately allotted to the Initiative will go to the USDA-ARS, an in-house research agency for the USDA, while the remaining 1/3 will be given to university cooperators who can work with ARS scientists.

“The money given to the USDA is used for everything from employee salaries to the electric bill, while universities will usually cover a lot of that overhead,” Morris mentioned. An ultimate goal of the initiative is to make it possible for university and industry researchers to work together more easily, allowing research teams to build from previous results and experiments, rather than starting from scratch. The proposal notes that this level of cooperation will ensure the government gets the most out of the money it invests in the Initiative. Additionally, because the USDA-ARS has 2,000 scientists and 100 research locations, NTEP insists that it will be able to “contribute uniquely and significantly to turfgrass research because of its commitment to long-term research to achieve economic and environmental stability.”

“The intention of this program is not to take away from what universities and private industries are already doing,” Morris assured. “It’s just a way to have them compliment each other and fill in the gaps. This ARS cooperation will add a lot to the scientific knowledge base about turfgrass so universities and industries can build from that and perform more specific, applicable research.”

Specifically, Morris noted that significant emphasis will be put on basic research that has not been performed on turfgrasses due to lack of funding. “In other crops like corn, soybeans and wheat, there’s so many research dollars put into developing new products, understanding the genetics of the plants – a lot of those things have never been done in turf at all,” he observed. “Most of the [turfgrass] research has been product oriented and more applied research, which is important to the average end user – things like what fertilizer works the best, for instance. But there hasn’t been any funding for the more basic, long-range, riskier type of research.” Studies on how drought and salt tolerance mechanisms work in turfgrasses, research on moving desirable genes from other plants species to turfgrasses, and documentation regarding how much pesticide and fertilizer applications contribute to groundwater pollution as compared to other land uses, are just a few examples of research the involved organizations hope to achieve with government funding.

The Initiative focuses on six main research needs outlined by a forum of about 100 green industry professionals at a workshop held in January 2002. Lawn care operators, sod producers, golf course superintendents, irrigations specialists, athletic field and park managers and others identified the following areas that could benefit from further research:

1. Improvement of Water Management Strategies and Practices
2. Collection, Enhancement and Preservation of Turfgrass Germplasm
3. Improvement of Pest Management Practices
4. Understanding and Improvement of Turfgrass’ Role in the Environment
5. Enhancement of Soul and Soil Management Practices
6. Development of Integrated Turf Management Systems

NTEP’s fingers are crossed that funding will start rolling in soon, and the organization will make resulting research efforts available as soon as it’s able. “The USDA has a public relations department so [research efforts] will be publicized that way,” Morris noted. “We’re also going to work on having forums to try to get information out. I think it will be disseminated very well.”

The author is Assistant Editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached at lspiers@lawnandlandscape.com.