Ag, Higher Education May Need To Change Funding Strategy

So, what’s the rate of investment for higher education in food and agriculture?

“The internal rate of return on investments in this sector if you look at a media kind of level across all of those studies, something in the order of 65% on investments in these areas.”

That was University of Nebraska Chancellor Ronnie Green speaking during a farm foundation forum in Washington D.C.

“Same kind of media estimate for just strait lined return on investment in food agriculture research and education, natural resources, research in education, it’s a number of about 20-to-1, historically.”

Yet Green and others believe the future investment in Ag research will need to exceed current numbers to meet forecast needs; such as feeding over nine billion people globally by the year 2050.  And he added higher education outlets will need to look at very different funding models to move forward.  He added those that are able to transition will see a return on their investment.

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