A proposed $160 million USDA research center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will focus on the challenges and opportunities in agricultural innovation. Officials broke ground recently at the future site of the National Center for Resilient and Regenerative Precision Agriculture, which will be located on the Nebraska Innovation Campus.
U.S. Senator Deb Fischer says the state-of-the-art facility will be home to world-leading research and development in ag tech. “It’s going to lower our input costs and it’s going to produce more with less,” Fischer said. “This tech is sustainable and it’s efficient.”
The university says the center will house four USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) research units, including two new teams focused on precision production and water, climate and resilience.
UNL Chancellor Dr. Rodney Bennett says construction will start with a series of greenhouses that will allow USDA’s Agricultural Research Service to conduct research on wheat, barley, sorghum, forage and bioenergy grasses. “It will produce technologies we have yet to imagine,” Bennett said, “and precision ag techniques that optimize resources, maximize yields, and reduce impacts on the environment.”
USDA says the facility’s research is expected to help develop climate-resilient crops for U.S. producers.