An agricultural experiment station (AES) or agricultural research station (ARS) is a scientific research center that investigates difficulties and potential improvements to food production and agribusiness. Experiment station scientists work with farmers, ranchers, suppliers, processors, and others involved in food production and agriculture.
Station scientists study biological, economic, and social problems of food and agriculture and related industries in each state. They investigate such areas as crop variations, soil testing, livestock, processing and animal technology, and other advanced technology in food and agriculture. They also work with specialists called extension agents. These specialists help inform farmers about developments in agriculture. Most agricultural experiment station scientists are faculty members of the land-grant universities.
In Canada, about 50 per cent (1988) of the experiment stations are controlled by the Canadian government. The Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa is the headquarters of the federal system. Private industries, universities, and agricultural colleges control the remainder of the stations. Each province has a number of provincial stations.[ citation needed ] The University of Saskatchewan has extensive agricultural experimental land.
The Benaki Phytopathological Institute [1] conducts experiments pertaining to plant health in many locations throughout the mainland, as well as in Crete and on other Greek islands.
The Agricultural University of Iceland [2] maintains several experiment stations throughout the country.
Israel host multiple agricultural stations, including the Yair Agricultural Research and Development Station in the Arava desert, the Volcani center and others. [3] [4] Israel is considered a global hub of water and sustainable agricultural technology. [5] [6]
The Regional Agricultural Research Station at Lam of Guntur. [7]
Japan has five agricultural experiment stations of Independent Administrative Institution of National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, former national stations, and many other prefectural stations all over the country.
New Zealand has agricultural research stations at Ruakura, Winchmore and Invermay.
Sutton Bridge Crop Storage Research in Sutton Bridge, Lincolnshire, is a leading UK agricultural experiment station owned by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board and operated by its Potato Council division, it engages in a wide range of research disciplines impacting upon crop storage for the British potato industry, including confidential contract research and development. [8]
Syngenta's largest R&D center is at Jealott's Hill in Berkshire. Before its current incarnation it belonged to Imperial Chemical Industries.
The Hatch Act of 1887 authorized the establishment of agricultural experiment stations, to be affiliated with the land grant college of agriculture, in each state (7 U.S.C. 361a et seq.). The mission of the agricultural experiment stations as set out in the Hatch Act is to conduct original research, investigation, and experiments which contributing to the establishment and maintenance of the agricultural industry in the United States. Including research pertaining to agriculture in its broadest sense as well as improvement of the rural home and rural life, and the contribution by agriculture to the welfare of the consumer. [9] Research done at these stations underpins the curriculum of the colleges, as well as the programs of the Cooperative Extension System. [10] The United States of America has more than 600 main experiment stations and branch stations, run by about 13,000 scientists. [11] In some states, agricultural experiment stations are integrated into the agriculture colleges of Land Grant Universities; while in others they are administratively unique institutions. The structure of the agricultural experiment stations varies state-to-state in order to meet the unique needs of each state. Factors such as size of the land grant university, and size and type of agriculture in a state will affect the organization and research conducted by the station. [11]
The United States Department of Agriculture also maintains over 90 research locations, including locations abroad. The research stations of the USDA are divided into 5 geographic areas across the United States, each with a centrally located station. Including: Pacific West at Albany, CA, Plains Area at Ft. Collins, CO, Southeast Area at Stoneville, MS, Midwest Area at Peoria, IL, and Northeast Area at Beltsville, MD. Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, is the largest of USDA's research locations at 6,500 acres and contains the National Agricultural Library. [12] [13]
The U.S. experiment stations are state institutions. However, the federal and state governments cooperate in funding the research done at the stations. The states provide about 60 percent (1988) of the government money. Additional income comes from grants, contracts, and the sale of products. The stations receive a total income of more than $1 billion a year.[ citation needed ]
The University of the Virgin Islands maintains an experiment station [14] on the island of St. Croix, working on agroforestry, aquaponics, biotechnology, forage agronomy, and tilapia farming, among other areas of research.
In 1786, Comte d'Angiviller, acting for Louis XVI of France, acquired 366 merino sheep from Spain and began an experimental program of adapting the species to France at the farm attached to Château de Rambouillet. As a result, there is the branch of merinos called Rambouillet sheep.
In 1836 Jean-Baptiste Boussingault established the first agricultural experiment station at Pechelbronn in Alsace.
A precursor to the agricultural experiment station was the botanical garden. For example, Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck founded the Botanische Gärten der Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn in 1818. With need for animal nutrition, scientists such as Karl Heinrich Ritthausen turned to biochemistry to investigate the comparative nutrition from grains and pulses.
Following the footsteps of the enlightenment rationalism and experimentalism, Germany began to see the rise of agricultural experiment stations, indicating the beginnings of an attempt to merge traditional agronomy with analytical chemistry. In 1840, Justus von Liebig, an influential German chemist and professor at the University of Giessen, published his book Organic Chemistry in its Application to Agriculture and Physiology. Liebig theorized that nitrogen and trace minerals from soil erosion were essential to plant nutrition, and, from this analytical chemistry perspective, simplified agriculture to a series of chemical reactions. [15] While Liebig's work inspired a generation of analytical agricultural chemists interested in fundamental questions of plant nutrition, e.g., Wilhelm Knop and Julius von Sachs, founders of early German agricultural experiment stations did not solely seek to pursue questions of soil chemistry, but rather sought to bridge the gap between the two fields of agriculture and chemistry.
The most well-known and earliest German experimental station, or LandwirtschaftlicheVersuchsstationen, established was the Möckern Agricultural Experiment Station, located near the city of Leipzig. Created on September 28, 1850, the Möckern project was spearheaded by three Saxon men: Julius Adolph Stöckhardt, a professor of agricultural chemistry; Wilhelm Crusius, German estate owner interested in scientific agriculture; and Theodor Reuning, the German agricultural minister at the time. [16] Though all three men took interest in Liebig's scientific approach to soil chemistry, they maintained distinct agricultural and economic focus at Möckern, and rejected a purely laboratory approach to agriculture. [16] Unlike Liebig, Stöckhardt sought the integration of chemistry with agriculturists, rather than a specialization of chemists to come in and do the work. As a landowner who employed chemists, Crusius saw the value of chemical agriculture in economic terms to increase profit, while Reuning's support for Möckern Station represented the beginnings of governmental interest and funding of agricultural experimental stations.
Under Crusius, the Möckern Station submitted a Letter of Purpose in a government application. It specified that the Möckern Station belonging to the Leipzig Economic Society would devote itself to the advancement of agriculture via scientific investigation, through cooperation between practical farmers and scientific professionals. They listed six main research objectives, summarized below:
Hokkaido Development Commission founded the very first agricultural experiment station of the country in Sapporo in 1871, under the advice of O-yatoi gaikokujin (hired foreign experts).
The first national agricultural experiment station was founded in 1893 in Tokyo, Sendai, Kanazawa, Osaka, Hiroshima, Tokushima, and Kumamoto under the Edict No.18.
And, 1899 act for prefectural agricultural experiment stations supported prefectural movement to establish agricultural experiment stations all over Japan.
John Bennet Lawes, with the help of Joseph Henry Gilbert, established one of the oldest agricultural experiment stations in the world: Rothamsted Experimental Station, located at Harpenden in Hertfordshire, England, was founded in 1843. This establishment was where Ronald Fisher was inspired to important advances in the theory of statistical inference and genetics. Another important agricultural experiment station was founded in 1903 and closed in 2003: Long Ashton Research Station.
The movement to establish agricultural experiment stations in the US can be credited to Samuel William Johnson who taught the first course in biochemistry. The development was recounted by William Cumming Rose:
The Bussey Institution at Harvard University (since 1871) and the Houghton Farm at Cornwall, New York (1876–88), were privately endowed stations. By 1887 fourteen states had definite organizations and in thirteen others the colleges conducted equivalent work.
Federal aid for state experiment stations began with the Hatch Act of 1887. The Hatch Act authorized direct payment of federal grant funds to each state to establish an agricultural experiment station "under direction of" its land-grant college. Land-grant colleges had been established under the Morrill Act of 1862. The aid was increased by the Adams Act (1906) and the Purnell Act (1925). The provisions of the original Hatch Act and of later legislation providing increasing funds were combined in the Hatch Act of 1955. [ citation needed ]
The McIntire–Stennis Act of 1962 authorized forestry research studies at experiment stations.
Agricultural science is a broad multidisciplinary field of biology that encompasses the parts of exact, natural, economic and social sciences that are used in the practice and understanding of agriculture. Professionals of the agricultural science are called agricultural scientists or agriculturists.
Justus Freiherr (Baron) von Liebig was a German scientist who made major contributions to the theory, practice, and pedagogy of chemistry, as well as to agricultural and biological chemistry; he is considered one of the principal founders of organic chemistry. As a professor at the University of Giessen, he devised the modern laboratory-oriented teaching method, and for such innovations, he is regarded as one of the greatest chemistry teachers of all time. He has been described as the "father of the fertilizer industry" for his emphasis on nitrogen and minerals as essential plant nutrients, and his popularization of the law of the minimum, which states that plant growth is limited by the scarcest nutrient resource, rather than the total amount of resources available. He also developed a manufacturing process for beef extracts, and with his consent a company, called Liebig Extract of Meat Company, was founded to exploit the concept; it later introduced the Oxo brand beef bouillon cube. He popularized an earlier invention for condensing vapors, which came to be known as the Liebig condenser.
Agronomy is the science and technology of producing and using plants by agriculture for food, fuel, fiber, chemicals, recreation, or land conservation. Agronomy has come to include research of plant genetics, plant physiology, meteorology, and soil science. It is the application of a combination of sciences such as biology, chemistry, economics, ecology, earth science, and genetics. Professionals of agronomy are termed agronomists.
Jean-Baptiste Joseph Dieudonné Boussingault was a French chemist who made significant contributions to agricultural science, petroleum science and metallurgy.
The history of agricultural science is a sub-field of the history of agriculture which looks at the scientific advancement of techniques and understanding of agriculture. Early study of organic production in botanical gardens was continued in with agricultural experiment stations in several countries.
Agricultural research in Israel is based on close cooperation and interaction between scientists, consultants, farmers and agriculture-related industries. Israel's climate ranges from Mediterranean (Csa) to semi-arid and arid. Shortage of irrigation water and inadequate precipitation in some parts of the country are major constraints facing Israeli agriculture. Through extensive greenhouses production, vegetables, fruits and flowers are grown for export to the European markets during the winter off-season.
The single-grain experiment was an experiment carried out at the University of Wisconsin–Madison from May 1907 to 1911. The experiment tested if cows could survive on a single type of grain. The experiment would lead to the development of modern nutritional science.
Wilbur Olin Atwater was an American chemist known for his studies of human nutrition and metabolism, and is considered the father of modern nutrition research and education. He is credited with developing the Atwater system, which laid the groundwork for nutrition science in the United States and inspired modern Olympic nutrition.
The Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station (AAES) is the statewide research component of the University of Arkansas System's Division of Agriculture. The Division also includes the Cooperative Extension Service. The AAES and CES work together to develop and test new agricultural technology and extend it to the public. Research faculty and staff are based on five university campuses, at five Research and Extension Centers; six research stations and seven specialized units.
Julius Adolph Stöckhardt was a German agricultural chemist. He is mostly recognized for his work on fertilizers, fume damage of plants and his book Die Schule der Chemie, which was translated into 14 languages. His 500 lectures and over 500 publications helped to establish agricultural chemistry in Germany.
Johann August Ludwig Wilhelm Knop was a German agrochemist and co-founder of modern water culture due to his pioneering experiments with the cultivation of crops in nutrient solutions.
The history of fertilizer has largely shaped political, economic, and social circumstances in their traditional uses. Subsequently, there has been a radical reshaping of environmental conditions following the development of chemically synthesized fertilizers.
The University of Maryland College of Agriculture and Natural Resources is the agricultural and environmental sciences college of the University of Maryland and operates the Maryland Sea Grant College in cooperation with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Samuel William Johnson was an American agricultural chemist. He promoted the movement to bring the sciences to the aid of American farmers through agricultural experiment stations and education in agricultural science.
The University of Kentucky Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment is a public agricultural college at the University of Kentucky. The college was renamed the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment on July 1, 2013. The name change incorporates the college's expanded role that occurred with the merger of the College of Human Environmental Sciences into the College of Agriculture. The college's research, teaching and outreach programs encompass farms, forests, food, fiber, families and communities. On May 25, 2023, the college announced a $100-million gift from late University of Kentucky alum and former trustee Carol Martin “Bill” Gatton. The college subsequently announced it would be renamed the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment pending approval from the UK Board of Trustees. As of June 16, 2023, the college is officially renamed the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment.
Sterling Brown Hendricks was an American agriculturist notable for his research on the structural aspects of organic and inorganic chemistry, soil chemistry and plant physiology and nutrition.
New Jersey Hall is a historic education building located on the campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Built in 1889 under the leadership of President Merrill Edward Gates, it housed the Agricultural Experiment Station. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 24, 1975, for its significance in agriculture and education. Today, the building houses the university's Department of Economics.
Karl Heinrich Ritthausen was a German biochemist who identified two amino acids and made other contributions to the science of plant proteins.
The Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) was an extension agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), part of the executive branch of the federal government. The 1994 Department Reorganization Act, passed by Congress, created CSREES by combining the former Cooperative State Research Service and the Extension Service into a single agency.
Walter-Ulrich Behrens was a German chemist and statistician who co-discovered with Ronald Fisher the Behrens-Fisher problem and the associated Behrens-Fisher distribution.
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