The College of Agriculture Story

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University Farm | Experiential Learning | Student Outreach | Research Initiative | Support Organizations
Student Organizations | Development | Partnerships | Changing Lives | Making a Difference | Meeting Needs
Helping California Lead | The Future Landscape | Conclusion

California State University Agricultural Research Initiative

For many years it has been recognized that academic expertise in the four CSU colleges of agriculture represented a valuable resource that could be better used to help address applied research needs in the areas of agriculture and natural resources.In the 1999/2000 budget, the CSU was provided with funding to begin the CSU Agricultural Research Initiative (ARI).An annual allocation of $5 million (later reduced to $ 4 million) from the state General Fund has been earmarked for the four California State University campuses that have agricultural programs (Chico, Fresno, Pomona and San Luis Obispo).

The funding is intended to support applied agricultural research in agricultural business management, biodiversity, biotechnology, food safety and processing, irrigation management and technology, natural resource management, production management systems, and public policy development and requires an equal match from non-California State University sources. The matching requirement helps to ensure that the research is considered to have value to those outside of the University. Funding can be used to buy faculty out of the classroom, hire researchers and technicians, support undergraduate and graduate research assistants, purchase equipment and cover other costs associated with the research and dissemination of results.

At Chico State our goal is fairly simple, we want to deploy ARI funds in a manner that allows us to enhance our undergraduate instruction by ensuring faculty are involved in applied agricultural research and our students have opportunities to be involved in those research projects. The range of activities being considered or already underway include funding well focused projects that undergraduate research assistants can complete within a well defined period of time (summer research), supporting collaborative projects with industry associations, establishing joint research projects with academics within UC Cooperative Extension, creating a visiting scholar program, and developing centers of excellence that allow for involvement of faculty and students across program, college and university lines in areas of critically needed applied research.