U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today an investment of more than $146 million in sustainable agricultural research projects aimed at improving a robust, resilient, climate-smart food and agricultural system.

This investment is made under the National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA) Sustainable Agricultural Systems program. This innovative program focuses on a broad base of needed research solutions from addressing labor challenges and promoting land stewardship to correcting climate change impacts in agriculture and critical needs in food and nutrition.

A diverse team of 18 scientists led by D. Raj Raman, Morrill Professor of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at Iowa State and coPI of the ADVANCE Midwest Partnership project, received a five-year, $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to study the potential environmental benefits afforded by perennial grasses, which grow every year without having to be planted or harvested, between rows of cash crops.