The USDA is investing $180 million to sequence the national seed collection as part of an effort to bolster food security and spur ag innovation, while the department also seeks to expand its collaboration with the Department of Justice.
Over two years, the Seed Sovereignty Initiative will fund the USDA’s effort to sequence a national collection of crops, including the 600,000 accessions from over 16,000 species housed at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS). Currently, USDA-ARS maintains collections of plant, animal, and microbial germplasm across the U.S.
Through the initiative, researchers will learn how to better respond to emerging disease and pest pressures by developing new crop varieties. Funding for the Seed Sovereignty Initiative will come from the Commodity Credit Corporation.
“The National Plant Germplasm System contains tremendous, untapped potential for American agriculture. Modern sequencing will allow us to unlock that potential and put it to work for American farmers, providing them a strong advantage,” said USDA Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics and Chief Scientist, Scott Hutchins, in a press release.
The initiative comes as the Trump administration has reduced USDA spending, while other major economies such as China have increased investment in agricultural research. The USDA’s fiscal year 2027 budget is $20.8 billion, a 19% decrease from enacted fiscal 2026 levels.
Shortly after Donald Trump took office, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cut nearly 20,000 employees at the USDA. NPGS’ National Program Leader Neha Kothari and 30 member of her staff were let go in the first months of the second Trump administration, before her and several of staff members were reinstated, according to Science reporting.
USDA, Justice Department sign another Memorandum of Understanding
Elsewhere in ag policy, the USDA and the Justice Department re-signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that amends a previous agreement made between the two departments geared at ensuring competitiveness in agricultural input markets.
The contours of the MOU were similar, and the resigned agreement placed a great emphasis on protecting competition in agricultural and food inputs. The new MOU highlighted previous collaborations, including Bayer’s decision to remove provisions from its loyalty program, which the department deemed as anticompetitive last year.
