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The National Grape and Wine Initiative's (NGWI) Board of Directors met with top level members of the USDA's Agricultural Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture in Washington, DC.

Dr. Cathie Woteki, USDA's top official in charge of all research, education and extension programs launched the discussions and included an update on the Administration's implementation plans for the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, a new institute authorized by the Farm Bill. In turn, NGWI outlined its unique industry-driven research agenda, and opened the dialogue about how other Farm Bill programs, including "centers of excellence" as well as commodity language might be interpreted to foster greater grape industry input on expenditures of federal research dollars. In addition to Dr. Woteki, NGWI members were briefed by Dr. Chavonda Jacobs-Young the new Administrator of the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), and Dr. Sonny Ramaswamy, Director of the National Institute of Food & Agriculture (NIFA) and programs administered by NIFA.

NGWI has met annually with the National Program Leaders (NPLs) of the USDA's intermural research program, the Agricultural Research Service, which has resulted in development of at least three of our major research projects: genomics, water management, and trunk diseases.

"This year, we were very excited to also have the opportunity to sit down with several National Program Leaders from NIFA" stated Rick Stark, Chairman of NGWI. NIFA, the extra-mural research program, passes funds through to Land Grant universities and agricultural experiment stations, as well as some funding for cooperative extension. Additionally this arm of the USDA administers competitive grants programs, including the Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) and the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) which historically has been beyond the grasp of specialty crop organizations like NGWI.

The meetings with NIFA provided an opportunity for NGWI to lay out the industry research priorities as well as explore potential funding possibilities through AFRI which has a budget of more than $350 million. "We believe we have opened the door to a closer relationship with NIFA and are looking forward to future collaboration with them" Stark added.

Dr. Sally Schneider, recently named as Deputy Administrator Natural Resources and Sustainable Agriculture Systems, brought together many National Program Leaders of ARS to meet with NGWI. Each of the NPLs gave an overview of their National Programs and the focus of future research. Discussion of new opportunities for the grape industry and NGWI to work with ARS were examined. "Our relationship with ARS has played a critical role in the development and advancement of research projects for the grape industry" noted Stark.

All the presentations from the May 22 meeting (USDA/ARS) are available on the NGWI website click here.