Sponsors (2)
The bill directs federal resources to expand precision agriculture training and research—potentially boosting workforce skills and farm productivity—while increasing federal spending and risking reduced access for smaller institutions and diversion of research funds from other priorities.
Farmers and agribusiness employers gain access to a better-trained workforce with skills in precision agriculture, which can raise on-farm productivity and efficiency.
Students and job-seekers in agriculture gain new funded training programs in precision agriculture through competitive grants, improving job-ready skills and career pathways.
Universities and research institutions receive expanded federal research funding to advance precision agriculture technology and curricula, supporting innovation and academic programs.
Taxpayers would fund new grant programs, increasing federal spending without an explicit appropriation amount specified.
Small colleges, rural communities, and students at institutions without grant-writing capacity risk being left out if competitive grants favor established partners, limiting equitable access to training.
Emphasizing precision agriculture could redirect limited research dollars away from other agricultural or environmental priorities, potentially leaving some research areas underfunded.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Adds precision agriculture workforce development as an eligible priority for USDA research/extension and AFRI cooperative-education grants to support student training programs.
Official title: To amend the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 to include as a high-priority research and extension initiative research and extension on precision agriculture workforce development, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 27, 2026 by Mike Flood · Last progress April 27, 2026
Adds precision agriculture workforce development as an eligible topic for competitive USDA research and extension grants and expands the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) priority criteria to authorize grants to institutions that run cooperative education programs focused on precision agriculture workforce training. The change creates a new high-priority research/extension area and explicitly makes cooperative-education institutions eligible for AFRI grants to support student workforce training programs in precision agriculture.