The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Research Service
(ARS) and the National Turfgrass Federation (NTF) signed an agreement in June to
launch a long-term research program aimed at improving the nation's turfgrass.
New research will be done as part of a national turfgrass initiative, a
cooperative effort between the turfgrass industry, universities, and ARS. "This
is the first attempt to provide the type of long-term research that has been key
to the success of all other major crops," said ARS Acting Administrator Edward
Knipling. Turfgrass is a major agricultural crop that covers 50 million acres
nationally - almost as many acres as wheat - and supports a $40 billion-a-year
business. In Maryland alone, it is the No. 1 one crop, bringing in $1 billion a
year. Knipling noted that turfgrass is the only crop industry that increases
with urban development. "Homeowners' lawns account for about 30 million acres of
the crop each year," he said. "Turfgrass touches the lives of all Americans,
covering additional millions of acres on school grounds, municipal parks and
athletic fields."
The USDA has had a long association with turfgrass research. The U.S. Golf
Association funded work at the USDA research farm when it was on the
pre-Pentagon site in Arlington, VA, in 1920. The association continued working
with USDA when the research center swapped the current Pentagon site for federal
land in Beltsville, MD, in the 1940s. Today, ARS has a national turfgrass
program with a dozen ARS locations doing turfgrass research across the country,
from Maryland to California. According to Kevin Morris, with the NTF in
Beltsville, the NTF also works with university researchers to evaluate turfgrass
in 40 states. The new initiative will support research in six priority areas
identified by the industry as their top research needs: improvement of water
management, germplasm collection and enhancement, pest management, improving
turfgrass' role in the environment, soil enhancement, and integrated turf
management systems. (ARS News Service, 6/3/04).
