USDA-AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE: A PUBLIC PARTNER FOR SUGARCANE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

By  GAIL C. WISLER
USDA-ARS, National Program Leader for Horticulture and Sugar,
Beltsville, Maryland, U.S.A.
Gail.Wisler@ars.usda.gov

Abstract

RESEARCHis the cornerstone for maintaining healthy and sustainable agricultural industries.
Systems for obtaining funding and managing and dispersing resources are as diverse as there
are systems for culturing sugarcane.This paper presents a model of managing agricultural
research programs at the Federal agency level.The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is
USDA’s principal in-house agricultural research agency and, as a Federal agency, it is tasked
with conducting publicly-funded research for the benefit of the United States.
ARS aims to generate relevant, significant, and timely scientific information for use
by the Agency’s many stakeholders: agricultural producers, food processing industries,
natural resource managers, universities, and non-profit research institutions.
To ensure that these objectives can be achieved, ARS implemented the National
Program cycle, a cycle of phases embodying a series of recurring activities. Customers and
stakeholders are actively engaged in each phase of the process and their contributions are
integral to the direction of research and its success.
Input, Planning, Implementation, and Assessment are the four sequential phases
through which ARS research progresses, ensuring that it remains of the highest quality. The
cycle ties these activities together in a recurring 5-year sequence to ensure an effective and
efficient program and project management within ARS. These efforts are aimed at
maintaining a sustainable sugarcane industry that is responsive to changing economics,
production problems, and opportunities, and will require continued Federal, but also State,
private, and international cooperation to be successful.
The beneficiaries of a sustainable sugarcane industry will be the citizens of the U.S.
who will enjoy abundant and affordable sugar and sugar-based products.

KEYWORDS: National Programs,
Stakeholders, Matrix Management.

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Plenary Proc. Int. Soc. Sugar Cane Technol., Vol. 27, 2010 
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