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| Many agricultural researchers today acknowledge the connection between nature and what we eat, generating ideas on environmentally sound, economically viable, socially responsible agricultural systems. The USDA’s North Central Region (NCR) Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program supports innovators with competitive Research and Education grants. Individual grants range from $10,000 to $175,000. The NCR has awarded more than 380 Research and Education grants worth more than $26 million to 12 states since 1988, when SARE began. Search the national SARE database to review funded Research and Education grants from the North Central and other regions.
We make slight revisions to our calls for proposals each year, which means it is crucial for our readers to only have access to the most recent call for proposals. To ensure that our information is accurate, we remove the old calls as soon as the deadlines have passed in order to avoid confusion. Funding decisions are made by a regional Administrative Council (AC), with review from a Technical Committee. The AC is a collection of producers, university representatives, nonprofit group interests, Extension and NRCS people, other government employees and agribusiness representatives. This group sets research priorities and recommends projects for funding. Annual Grant-Making Timeline For 2008-2009, NCR-SARE issued its Call for Preproposals in mid-April, and preproposals were due in mid-June. Invitations for full proposals were issued in August and proposals are due in early November. The Administrative Council will make their recommendations in early March. Funds should be available in late summer or early fall. Future timelines, however, are subject to change. The deadline for 2010 Research and Education preproposals was Wednesday, June 10, 2009.
2009 Research and Education Projects Recommended for Funding
Research and Education General Fact Sheet In SARE, researchers at universities, in extension offices, on farms and in nonprofit groups have found a place to come together. Many projects are interdisciplinary and/or multi-institutional, involving a broad range of agricultural interests. "Many of us have forged new relationships between researchers and farmers, organizations and institutions, and among community members who now realize that they have common goals and solutions to their problems that require common effort," Wyatt Fraas said. For a 1995 project, he recruited producers, non-farm community members and others to form local agricultural groups fostering community support for and increased adoption of sustainable farming systems. Farmers and ranchers help develop and then become the end-users of NCR-SARE research and educational products. "SARE support has allowed me to reach beyond the confines of university research and into minds of farmers managing natural resources," said Diane Rickerl, of South Dakota State University, who studied wetland management in the Prairie Pothole Region with a 1992 NCR grant. Rick Exner, Iowa State University educator and Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) coordinator, agrees that farmer participation is crucial. In demonstrating that a ridge tillage row-crop system is economically competitive, Exner paired researchers and farmers in collaborative teams. "Agricultural scientists found in these trials an opportunity to conduct research at a greater number of sites that closely approximate the ‘real world,’ " said Exner, a 1995 grant recipient. "PFI farmers gained the expertise and laboratory facilities of the researchers." Deb Stinner, Ohio State University researcher, added, "The professional part of my life has become much richer working with farmers. The energy and spirit that working with farmers has given me is tremendous." SARE project coordinators realize that sustainable systems must be profitable for farmers and ranchers. In Minnesota, George Boody and the Land Stewardship Project received a 1994 grant to monitor sustainable farming in a management-intensive grazing system. Measured as a percent of gross income, veterinary and herd health expenses were two to three times higher for conventional farms than for the farms in Boody’s study. Surveys from a Wisconsin project show that a six-acre Community Supported Agriculture farm raising about 16 tons of produce for 150 shareholders has an economic impact of $270,000 annually; from 55 to 93 percent of those dollars remain in the area, supporting potentially nine or 10 jobs. "The figures imply three or four nonfarmers would be needed to replace one farmer’s economic benefit to a community," said an economist assisting with the 1995-funded project. Fred Martz, of the University of Missouri, found economic benefits to raising pastured beef in his 1994 SARE grant. Cattle rotating through paddocks and fed no grain gained weight at a cost of $41 per hundredweight, compared with $57 for steers fed only grain in confinement. Grain-fed steers finished faster and most graded higher than pastured cattle, but would have lost at least $25 per head based on 1995 beef prices, Martz found. NCR-SARE investigators explore the social side of agriculture, delving into the changes and challenges in rural communities and farm family life. In 1995, NCR-SARE released a special call for proposals in socioeconomic issues. From that call, Deb Stinner began exploring Amish farms in Ohio to assess environmental, economic and social aspects of those systems. Many other SARE research and education projects look at systems rather than components and realize the connection between ecosystems, people and communities. "I could not get funded to do the work I’m doing through other channels," Stinner said. "The quality of life aspects may be a casual interest in other funding programs, but SARE is unique in offering opportunities for scientists to holistically explore agricultural systems." SARE in the NCR is at the cutting edge of agricultural research, realizing that the future of sustainable farming and ranching lies in successful marketing. In 1997, the NCR issued a special call for marketing proposals to foster farm-to-community connections and the development of marketing infrastructure. Prior to that call, the Kansas Rural Center received 1995 SARE funds to sponsor the Tallgrass Prairie Producers, a marketing cooperative of ranchers raising grass-fed beef. "The Tallgrass Producers probably wouldn’t be in existence without the SARE program," said Jerry Jost, of the Kansas Rural Center. "It takes a lot of personal investment and that SARE grant was key." Project coordinators in the past have explored sustainable agriculture under the following topics: biocontrol, crop production, education/extension, networking, livestock production, marketing, quality of life, soil quality, value-added marketing, waste management, water quality, and weed control. Future proposals are not limited to these areas. Each year the NCR-SARE Administrative Council sets priority areas. Some projects are funded exclusively as education or demonstration tools. All projects include outreach. Ten years of NCR-sponsored publications, videos, workshops, field days, conferences, newsletters, web sites and other communication vehicles provide an extension of projects beyond the circle of participants. Results are often creatively shared with special audiences. For instance, Walker Kirby, researcher and extension educator at the University of Illinois, held clinics on biocontrol of nematodes at high schools, introducing area young people — the future of farming — to sustainable agriculture. The NCR-SARE program encourages potential project coordinators to seek matching funds from other governmental and nongovernmental agencies. A Retrospective Evaluation of the Research & Education Grant Program In 2007, North Central SARE conducted a retrospective evaluation of its Research and Education (R&E) Grant Program. The Center for Evaluative Studies in Michigan State University’s Department of Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies (MSU CARRS) conducted the survey research component of the evaluation. Here are a few highlights from the reports:
The farmer survey result reports describe changes in farming operations such as fertilizer and pesticide use, net income, and many others. While the survey response rate was relatively high, responses to individual questions were variable enough that we caution against making sweeping generalizations. The results are self-explanatory except for two items. First, there were some discrepancies in the results between farmers involved in R&E project and the project Principle Investigators (PIs). For example, farmers had somewhat different perceptions of the levels of farmer involvement than project PIs – farmers reported less involvement in NCR-SARE R&E than Project PIs reported. This could be a matter of differing definitions or memories. It could merely be that farmers responding to the survey were not involved in the same projects as the Project PIs who responded. Second, very different results to similar questions warrant further examination. For instance, two-thirds of farmers reported no change in net income and one-third of farmers reported an increase in net income due to their participation in a NCR-SARE R&E funded project. However, 70% of the respondents were reported that their profitability had increased. Two reasons may explain this discrepancy. MSU survey researchers found that not all respondents answered both questions; some answered one or the other. An agricultural economist queried on this matter said "the eye of the beholder" definition comes into play here. Profitability may be a proxy for economic well-being, particularly in the time period when this survey was conducted – higher land values, higher commodity prices. Net income may be a more precise term than profitability in this case.
If you have any questions about the survey reports, please send an e-mail query to ncrsare@umn.edu.
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