USDA Agricultural Research Service Strategic Plan for FY 2012 – 2017.

The USDA Agricultural Research Service Strategic Plan for FY 2012 – 2017 is a national sectoral plan of the United States of America. It states that the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) conducts research to develop and transfer solutions to agricultural problems of high national priority and provide information access and dissemination to ensure high-quality, safe food, and other agricultural products; assess the nutritional needs of Americans; sustain a competitive agricultural economy; enhance the natural resource base and the environment; provide economic opportunities for rural citizens, communities, and society as a whole; and provide the infrastructure necessary to create and maintain a diversified workplace.
More specifically, it aims to enable Americans to make health-promoting, science-based dietary choices: human nutrition; monitor nutrient composition of food supply and consumption by Americans while conducting research on life stage nutrition and metabolism. strengthen the scientific basis for dietary guidance for health promotion and disease prevention and develop strategies for prevention of obesity and related diseases; monitor nutrient composition of the food supply and consumption by Americans; strengthen the scientific basis for dietary guidance for health promotion and disease prevention; develop strategies for prevention of obesity and related diseases; conduct research on life stage nutrition and metabolism; enhance the economic viability and competitiveness of U.S. agriculture by maintaining the quality of harvested agricultural commodities or otherwise enhancing their marketability, meeting consumer needs, developing environmentally friendly and efficient processing concepts, and expanding domestic and global market opportunities through the development of value-added food and nonfood technologies and products, except energy and fuels; integrated, effective, and safe water resource management; develop technology and practices to promote improvement of integrated, effective and safe water resource management; develop tools and technologies to improve the effectiveness of agricultural water management; improve the scientific understanding of erosion, sedimentation, and contaminant transport processes from agricultural fields and landscapes to facilitate the development of tools and technologies to better protect the agricultural water quality; develop strategies to improve the effectiveness of agricultural conservation efforts by developing new or improved conservation practices, improving practice placement to maximize effectiveness and minimize cost, and developing a better understanding of the effects of agricultural conservation at the landscape scale; conduct research to improve watershed management and ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes; improve quality of atmosphere and soil resources, understand effects of climate change; improve quality of atmosphere and soil resources; understand effects of climate change through development of knowledge and technologies; enable improvements of air quality via management and mitigation of emissions from agricultural operations; develop knowledge and technologies for reducing atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations through management of agricultural emissions and carbon sequestration; enable agriculture to adapt to climate change; develop technologies for maintaining and enhancing soil resources; develop technologies to enable sustainable commercial production of biofuels; effectively and safely manage and use manure and other agricultural and industrial byproducts in ways that maximise their potential benefits while protecting the environment and human and animal health; develop and transfer economically viable and environmentally sustainable production and conservation practices, technologies, plant materials and integrated management strategies, based on fundamental knowledge of ecological processes, that conserve and enhance the nation's diverse natural resources found on its range, pasture, hay and turf lands; develop integrated solutions to solve challenges related to agricultural system productivity, profitability, energy efficiency, and natural resource stewardship; protect, expand, and enhance the united states’ crop genetic resource base, increase scientific knowledge of crop genes, genomes, biological processes and systems, and deliver economically and environmentally sound technologies that improve the production efficiency, quality, health and value of the nation’s crops; provide scientific information to increase our knowledge of plant genes, genomes and biological and molecular processes to protect crops and cropping systems from the negative effects of pests and infectious diseases. develop sustainable control strategies for crop pests and pathogens based on fundamental and applied research that are effective and affordable, while maintaining food safety and environmental quality; provide scientific information and biotechnologies to enhance management practices that will ensure an abundant supply of competitively priced animal and aquaculture products; prevent and control pests and animal diseases that pose a threat to agriculture, public health, and the well-being of American citizens; develop a model equal employment opportunity program that will provide infrastructure necessary to create and maintain a diversified workplace free from discrimination, harassment, or retaliation, and characterised by an atmosphere of inclusion and career development opportunities; international engagement and partnerships: extend the capacity of the national programs to address problems confronting U.S. agriculture; ensure provision and permanent access of quality agricultural information for USDA, the nation, and the global agricultural community via the national agricultural library; and develop outreach activities that will enable ARS to better support the USDA initiative to increase services to limited resource, socially disadvantaged, and/or historically underserved farmers and ranchers.