NOTES TO THE

FRUIT AND VEGETABLE INDUSTRY

ADVISORY COMMITTEE FVIAC

SEPT 2015

USDA Office of the Chief 

Scientist

Ann Marie Thro, Sr. Advisor

Plant Health, Production, and Plant Products 

 

 7/29/2015
United States Department of Agriculture

Office of the Chief Scientist

2008 ‘farm bill’: USDA Chief Scientist, 

Under Secr’y for Research, Education, & Economics (REE)

presently Dr. Catherine Woteki 

OCS supports and advises Chief Scientist and Secretary; 

Fosters collaboration and coordination among 

USDA science agencies

OCS has a Director; staff incl. Sr. Advisors in 6 areas: 

Plant Health, Production & Products // Animal Health, 

Production & Products // Natural Resources & Environment incl.

Bioenergy // Food Safety & Nutrition // Agricultural Systems incl. 

Climate Change // Agricultural Economics & Rural Communities

Background: 

Office of the Chief Scientist, OCS
United States Department of Agriculture

Office of the Chief Scientist

Five USDA Agencies 

Conduct or Support Plant Breeding

Plant breeding, genetic resources, and related biological 

research:

• Agricultural Research Service (ARS) 

• Forest Service (FS) 

• Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) 

Economic and policy analyses

• Economic Research Service (ERS) 

Capacity and competitive funds for Research, Education, 

and Extension (i.e. extramural plant breeding)

• National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA)
United States Department of Agriculture

Office of the Chief Scientist

What is Plant Breeding? 

“Human-aided development of plant cultivars 

with needed characteristics” 

The organizing principle of breeding is the 

genetic gain equation:

∆G = h2 S 

Gain in a desired trait (∆G, or “delta-G”)

is a function of 

• the heritability of that trait (h2) 

• the intensity of selection (S)

Plant breeding “puts it all together”, 

using many different resources, tools, 

and methods to maximize gain, ∆G.
United States Department of Agriculture

Office of the Chief Scientist

Role of USDA Plant Breeding 

To provide plant breeding outcomes that are needed to 

achieve USDA’s Strategic Goals,

...When these have the nature of “public goods”:

E.g., 

o Breeding for long–term horizons -- too distant for private 

investment

o Important goals but probability of success is low or 

unknown

o Market size is small
United States Department of Agriculture

Office of the Chief Scientist

Examples include:

• Land-grant U’s: Plant Breeding Coordinating Committee 2007

• National Assoc. of Plant Breeders (NAPB) (publ+priv) 2009

• American Seed Research Summit (private-sector organized) 2008

• Seeds & Breeds for 21st Century Ag. (organic/sustainable) 2014

 Since ~2010,

Increasing number of stakeholders, across sectors, 

engaging w/USDA officials 

to present plant breeding needs & priorities 

An Increase in Stakeholder Attention to 

USDA’s Plant Breeding
United States Department of Agriculture

Office of the Chief Scientist

USDA Response:

• Plant Breeding Working Group (PBWG) 2012 

• Support to USDA Chief Scientist (REE UnderSecr.)

• Interagency coordination; advise re issues & priorities

• Public Plant Breeding Listening Session 2013

• USDA Plant Breeding Roadmap 2014/15 

Both documents posted at: 

http://www.usda.gov/

wps/portal/usda/usdahome?navid=OCS
United States Department of Agriculture

Office of the Chief Scientist

What We’ve Learned

What stakeholders—both public and private—

see as USDA’s core contributions to plant breeding:

• The National Plant Germplasm System collections (NPGS) incl. 

• Collection, curation, rejuvenation, characterization, and pre-breeding

• Genetic Resources Information Network (GRIN):

GRIN is an Information management system 

for genetic resources: 

 Inventory, images, rejuvenation status, IPR status, requests/order status
United States Department of Agriculture

Office of the Chief Scientist

What We’ve Learned, con’t.

Additional core contributions -- as seen by stakeholders:

USDA’s breadth of geographic coverage, 

through partnerships including:

• USDA sites (e.g. ARS, FS, and NRCS)

• State Agricultural Experiment Station (SAES): 

• Agric. research units of the state land-grant univ’s.

• Co-funded through USDA since in 1887

• Others, e.g. 

• Long Term Agricultural Research sites (LTAR) (multipartner)
United States Department of Agriculture

Office of the Chief Scientist

What We’ve Learned, cont’d.

Deliverables “by and for” public plant breeding 

cited by stakeholders as needed from USDA:

Intramural

• Cultivars (varieties) for “public-goods situations”

• New tools & methods, publically available for any breeder to help 

maximize gain, ∆G. 

• E.g. new tools / methods to : 

o Incorporate new genetic & biological understanding

o Reduce breeding cycle time (from cross-to-variety release)

Extramural

• Adequate and appropriate funding mechanisms,

• for the long-term nature of plant breeding; 

• for education
United States Department of Agriculture

Office of the Chief Scientist

Heard from stakeholders: 

concerns about...

Challenges for USDA’s response

• Low total funding + many proposals leads to 

low success rates in compet. programs 

(<10%, sometimes <5%)

• Short-duration (2-4 yrs); non-renewable

• Not enough competitive funding to 

respond to stakeholder concerns 

• Plant breeding needs longer-term 

funding cycles

• Few funding opportunities for student 

stipends

• Even fewer for faculty to develop 

contemporary plant breeding curricula

. 

Education

External funding thru’ USDA

• Rely on intramural USDA 

plant breeding? 

 ... leads to more questions:

• Loss of university plant 

breeding?

• Loss of closeness to needs and 

opportunities of local farming? 

• Whence opportunities for 

educating future breeders 

 -- within active breeding context?

Solution? 

What We’ve Learned, cont’d.
United States Department of Agriculture

Office of the Chief Scientist

Capacity programs (source of + 40% of NIFA plant breeding funding 2008-13)

 Hatch 1862 state land-grant univ’s.

 Evans-Allen 1890 land-grant univ’s. 

 McIntire-Stennis State forestry schools

 

National Institute of Food & Agriculture, NIFA

is USDA’s extramural funding agency. 

NIFA funding programs that can include plant breeding :

Competitive programs (+ 50% of NIFA funding to plant breeding 2008-13)

 AFRI (Agriculture & Food Research Initiative); including: 

AFRI Fellowships (2010) / Challenge Areas (2010) / Foundational (2013) 

 OREI Organic Agriculture Research & Extension Initiative (started 2005) 

 SCRI Specialty Crops Research Initiative (2008) 

 BRDI Biomass Research & Development Initiative (2009) 

 SBIR Small Business Innovation Research 

Other programs including special grants (less than 10%) 
United States Department of Agriculture

Office of the Chief Scientist

Also from the Roadmap process: 

Issues broader than USDA

Public / Private

• Most favorable 

balance of 

investment in 

plant breeding?

Funding the model

•A joint endeavor: 

intra/extramural; 

capacity/competitive; 

public/private

•Funding the 

training pipeline 

What are ways 

that USDA can 

respond? 

Recruit / Educate

•Encourage more 

young people to be 

interested in plant 

breeding

•Education: K-12, CC’s, 

undergrad.; grad.

IPR

•Optimal 

understanding and 

use of intellectual 

property rights (IPR) 

and tech transfer 

mechanisms?