The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service is working with stakeholders to develop a five-year plan that would start in 2018, called the National Program 301, Plant Genetic Resources, Genomics, and Genetic Improvement (NP-301).
NP-301 is the largest USDA-ARS national program, including 155 research projects at more than 50 sites across the United States. The program involves more than 300 crop researchers, breeders and curators that focus on plant breeding, genetics/genomics, bioinformatics and plant biotechnology risk assessment.
The proposed 2018-2022 action plan will have four main components: Crop genetic improvement; plant and microbial genetic resource and information management; biological and molecular processes for crop improvement; and information resources and tools for crop genetics, genomics and genetic improvement.
