by John Schlageck
Without question, agricultural research is one of the most vital investments America can make for the 21st Century. This research is necessary for feeding our increasing population and protecting our planet.
Agricultural research has been helping people by fighting hunger and lowering food costs for years. It also aids rural America, which has a higher wage structure than some of the developing countries and faces competition in the world marketplace.
High-yield farming is the result of agricultural research. Some would add high-yield farming is the greatest environmental achievement of human civilization.
Increased crop yields since 1960 are saving millions of square miles of wildlife habitat around the world from being plowed under for low-yield crops. Latest estimates say these savings in land equal the United States, Europe and Brazil in size.
Farming cannot return to an earlier time period when new technology and research were not as much a part of the agricultural scene.
If U.S. farmers attempted to produce the crops we harvest in this decade with the technology that prevailed in the 1940s, it would require more than 494 million additional acres of similar quality, say those in USDA agricultural research.
With the use of innovative practices, farmers have reduced soil erosion. Today, most farmers are using systems that leave at least 40 percent or more crop residue after planting. No till, ridge till and mulch till account for the reduction in soil loss.
The most sustainable farming in the world today is done with hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizer and pesticides used in integrated pest management and conservation tillage, according to the Soil and Water Conservation Society of the United States.
American farmers take responsibility for the conservation of valuable topsoil seriously. Farmers can, and will, do more to improve their environment. They will conserve more water, monitor grassland grazing and continue to implement environmentally sound techniques that will ensure preservation of the land. Farmers will change and adopt new techniques spawned by agricultural research. High-yield farming works, and it will continue to work because it is flexible enough to accept and adapt to change.
However, no agricultural system, or any system, is perfect. Farmers must continue to search for better ways to farm through research and education.
John Schlageck is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural America as a member of the Kansas Farm Bureau staff.
