Forum—ARS Research Partnerships Are Critical to U.S. Grain
Production Those “amber waves of grain” across America’s
farmlands are contributed to in part by public- and private-
sector researchers working together. The Agricultural Research
Service’s oat and barley research helps farmers, food producers,
and consumers reap production, quality, and nutritional
benefits. The research community for U.S. oat and barley
production is relatively small but is strengthened by remarkable
coordination and cooperation. ARS’s role is pivotal. Cooperative
projects—including ARS and university researchers, with support
from USDA and other federal agencies, and private industry—are
enabling researchers to leverage resources and successfully work
together for oat and barley improvement. Major diseases, like
cereal rusts in barley and oats and Fusarium head blight (scab)
in barley, threaten growers and major U.S. industry sectors that
thrive on these two crops. U.S. oat producers are concerned that
supplies will be lost unless