Small farms missing out on federal research dollars, study says

WASHINGTON — Small- and medium-sized farms are missing out on the largest share of federal research and grant dollars for agriculture, says a study released Tuesday.

Of $500 million spent on four Agriculture Department research and grant programs, only about 5 percent went to farmers with small- or medium-sized operations or beginning farmers, the Nebraska-based Center for Rural Affairs said.

Many projects that got funding “were essentially research and development initiatives for large food companies,” the report concluded. Analysts looked at funding in 2001 and 2002.

In a statement, the Agriculture Department responded that two of the programs don’t specifically focus on small producers; in fact, one is for public or nonprofit groups, not farmers.

And in one program, $1.5 million was set aside for smaller producers this year, the department said. The agency also created a $1.47 million grant program for small minority producers.

The nonprofit group argues the programs are crucial to traditional, independent family farms and ranches, which are disappearing across America.

In Iowa alone, the number of mid-sized farms, those with sales between $100,000 and $499,999, dropped 19 percent from 1997 to 2002, the center said. Nationwide, the average age of farmers has seen an annual rise of one year since 1997.

“Given the demographics of agriculture in America … the inability of major USDA research and grant programs to address the topic of beginning farmers and ranchers is disappointing,” said the center’s Kim Leval, an author of the report.

The group called on the government to target family farmers and rural communities in awarding federal money and said each program should set aside money for beginning farmers and ranchers.

The programs are the Rural Business Enterprise Grant program, the National Research Initiative, the Initiative for Future Agriculture and Food Systems and the Value-Added Producer Grant Program.

Funding for ethanol and other biofuels is causing tension within the value-added program, the report said.

“Whatever benefits flow from ethanol and biofuel production will not generally flow to small- and medium-sized farmers as large-scale energy production will be dependent on large-scale grain production and will increasingly become corporatized,” the report said.