How the Floriculture and Nursery Research Initiative Provides Value
The Floriculture and Nursery Research Initiative (FNRI) is a noncompetitive, national grant program administered by USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS). The program primarily seeks to improve resource management practices and strategies; insect, disease, and weed management practices; and production system practices in environmental horticulture.
FNRI uses a three-way model of coordination. In conjunction with ARS’s Office of National Programs, two commodity groups (AmericanHort and the American Floral Endowment) and university researchers work together to set annual priorities and determine annual project awards. Funding is distributed mostly to floriculture and nursery researchers, including a mix of ARS and university researchers.
USDA ARS leads floriculture and nursery research projects at 22 locations in the U.S., representing more than $37 million in ongoing research efforts. FNRI funding represents a substantial portion of the overall ARS efforts to support environmental horticulture and provides a unique public-private partnership.
Why is FNRI Important?
FNRI plays a critical role in generating scientific research on high-priority issues that affect all segments of floriculture and nursery industries, including postharvest technology, water quality, and pest management. In Fiscal Year 2019, the total sum allocated for FNRI was more than $2.8 million.
The research itself is important for the success and betterment of the environmental horticulture industry, but the research is meaningless unless the new information reaches stakeholders, so outreach to the green industry from FNRI-funded projects is mission critical.
In Fiscal Year 2019, FNRI-funded researchers have:
- Presented at grower expos, training, and educational workshops 25 times
- Published their research in nine popular press articles, newsletters, blogs, and reference guides and five books
- Trained 19 graduate students and postdocs
- Supported 39 undergraduates and technicians
- An additional 10 undergraduate students and nine graduate students and postdocs participated in the research without receiving funding
- Developed a network of 66 growers, researchers, and companies as cooperators
FNRI funding is also being leveraged to secure more than $2.3 million in competitive grants and unrestricted funding.
How Does AmericanHort Support FNRI?
AmericanHort was part of the process from the program’s inception. AmericanHort, then the American Nursery and Landscape Association, partnered with the Society of American Florists and first presented this program to Congress in 1998. Congress subsequently allocated $1 million the following year to initiate the program that has flourished since.
Congress has awarded FNRI an additional six funding increases throughout the years. All funding is congressionally appropriated to ARS, and AmericanHort was supportive of each funding increase. AmericanHort made FNRI a key issue of last year’s Impact Washington Summit to inform congressional leaders how important the program is to our stakeholders and preserve the program as-is without reducing its funding level.
For more information, contact AmericanHort at 614.487.1117 or www.americanhort.org.
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