The General Assembly gave the Research Stations Division a nice gift.

North Carolina Ag Commissioner Steve Troxler:

“The General Assembly included $2.5 million in the budget so our research stations can modernize their equipment. I cant say enough thanks to the leadership and members of the legislature for realizing the need for the future of NC agriculture. The good news is there is $2.5 million in next years budget to do the same thing so this should have quite a good impact on research in NC.

Its embarrassing to be doing ag research on equipment that is outdated. When I look at the modern equipment on the farms, we need to be doing the research on the same stuff they are using. We just got our first GPS and auto-steer technology this last year.

There are a few things that will offset some of the cost, maintenance is a huge part of that. We will be able to trade in some of this equipment and not have to spend so much in one place so it will be a great program for us.

The research division partners with the NC State University and the A&T State University. We manage all of the research stations, except the A&T station, and the universities do all of the research. It’s a great partnership. It is one that is recognized as one of the best in the US.
ts scary that world projections for food needs will be 50% more by the year 2030 and 100% by the year 2050. There are only 37 more crop years until then so we cant be waiting around. We have to continue to do the research. A study at Cal-Davis says that for every dollar spent on research it returns 19 dollars of economic benefit.”