By Geitner Simmons
Technological innovation will bring important new benefits to agriculture, and the nation’s land-grant universities are central to advancing that progress, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientist said in an April 28 Heuermann Lecture.
Scott Hutchins, the USDA’s under secretary for research, education and economics, said land-grants such as the University of Nebraska–Lincoln play a “pivotal role” in ag-focused research, producer impact and training of students as the next generation of scientists.
“The sustainability and continuance of what land-grants provide to agriculture has been unbelievable, and it has been the reason we have been successful,” Hutchins said in a Heuermann Lecture discussion in the Nebraska East Union moderated by Tiffany Heng-Moss, the Harlan Vice Chancellor for the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Hutchins directs operations and strategic management for a set of major USDA components including the Agricultural Research Service, which has longstanding research partnerships with IANR. As part of the USDA’s current reorganization, he said, the department is moving eight ARS positions to the federal Hruska Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center.
Agricultural Research Service is also moving two positions to East Campus, bolstering its longstanding research presence there in partnership with the university.
Source : unl.edu