Sec. 205. Long-Term Agroecological Network
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Title IV of the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998 is amended by inserting after section 401 (as added by section 201), the following: The Secretary, acting through the Administrator of the Agricultural Research Service, shall provide for the establishment and maintenance of a network of research sites operated by the Agricultural Research Service for research on the sustainability of agricultural systems in the United States, to be known as the Long-Term Agroecological Research Network (in this section referred to as the Network ) with the following goals:
To understand and enhance the sustainability of agriculture. To integrate research projects with common measurements on multiple agroecosystems (such as croplands, rangelands, and pasturelands). To develop new farming systems, practices, and technologies to address agricultural challenges and opportunities, including challenges and opportunities posed by climate change. The activities of the Network shall include— research conducted for a minimum of 30 years to develop novel scientific insights at regional and national scales and evaluate the applicability and adaptation to local conditions; the establishment and maintenance of multiple sites or research centers that capture the diversity of agricultural production systems that function as a network; and the coordination of large-scale data collection related to the sustainability of agricultural systems and the provision of infrastructure to research sites to allow for analyzing and disseminating such data.
The Secretary, shall, in carrying out subsection (a)— coordinate long-term agroecological research to improve understanding within the Department of Agriculture of how agroecosystems function at the field, regional, and national scales; designate research sites for inclusion in the Network that are representative of major agricultural regions; ensure that every research site so included conducts experiments with common goals and methods— to increase agricultural productivity and profitability; to enhance agricultural resilience and the capacity to mitigate and adapt to climate change; boost the provision of ecosystem services from agricultural landscapes; and improve opportunities for rural communities; make data collected at research sites included in the Network open to researchers and the public whenever practicable, and integrate data across the network and partner sites; and provide infrastructure to research sites included in the Network for data collection, common measurements, and data streams that complement other national networks, such as the National Ecological Observatory Network
(NEON)and the Long-Term Ecological Research
(LTER)network. There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section $50,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2021 through 2030. .