Agency · 1976–2026 · AAAS data
Department of Agriculture
Farm science, food safety, and forestry research through in-house labs and university grants.
The Department of Agriculture funds research and development (R&D) in two main ways. The Agricultural Research Service runs the government's own network of farm-science laboratories, while the National Institute of Food and Agriculture sends grant money out to land-grant universities. Around them sit the Economic Research Service, the National Agricultural Statistics Service, and the Forest Service's research arm.
The striking thing about this budget is how little it has moved. Adjusted for inflation, agricultural research has stayed between roughly $1.8 billion and $3.8 billion in 2017 dollars every single year since 1976, when the department spent $518 million in the dollars of the day. The one real spike came in 2021, when pandemic-era funding pushed the inflation-adjusted total to about $3.8 billion — the highest in the series. The 2013 budget sequestration is visible too, as a dip below the surrounding years.
In fiscal year 2025 the department's research budget was about $3.3 billion. The 2026 figure in this chart — roughly $2.5 billion, a cut of about a quarter — is the estimate carried over from the White House budget request. Congress didn't go along: the enacted FY 2026 budget works out to about $3.6 billion in R&D by AAAS's estimate, slightly above the 2025 level. The budget-cycle section below has the details.
Fig. 1 · Budget history
Agricultural research funding has stayed within roughly $1.8–3.8 billion in 2017 dollars every year for half a century.
The USDA research and development (R&D) budget, every fiscal year on record.
- 2013Sequestration. The Budget Control Act's across-the-board cuts dip the budget below its neighbors.
- 2021Pandemic-era peak. COVID-era funding pushes the inflation-adjusted total to its series high of about $3.8 billion in 2017 dollars.
The numbers behind this figure
| Fiscal year | Nominal dollars | Constant 2017 dollars | R&D share of GDP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | 518 | 1,802 | 0.029% |
| 1977 | 543 | 1,762 | 0.027% |
| 1978 | 633 | 1,925 | 0.028% |
| 1979 | 716 | 2,014 | 0.028% |
| 1980 | 715 | 1,850 | 0.026% |
| 1981 | 817 | 1,925 | 0.026% |
| 1982 | 830 | 1,829 | 0.025% |
| 1983 | 885 | 1,868 | 0.025% |
| 1984 | 976 | 1,990 | 0.025% |
| 1985 | 1,002 | 1,976 | 0.023% |
| 1986 | 960 | 1,851 | 0.021% |
| 1987 | 1,092 | 2,060 | 0.023% |
| 1988 | 1,117 | 2,041 | 0.022% |
| 1989 | 1,139 | 2,000 | 0.021% |
| 1990 | 1,223 | 2,073 | 0.021% |
| 1991 | 1,391 | 2,276 | 0.023% |
| 1992 | 1,519 | 2,425 | 0.024% |
| 1993 | 1,467 | 2,287 | 0.022% |
| 1994 | 1,528 | 2,332 | 0.021% |
| 1995 | 1,487 | 2,222 | 0.02% |
| 1996 | 1,488 | 2,182 | 0.019% |
| 1997 | 1,556 | 2,243 | 0.018% |
| 1998 | 1,561 | 2,222 | 0.017% |
| 1999 | 1,645 | 2,313 | 0.017% |
| 2000 | 1,776 | 2,445 | 0.018% |
| 2001 | 2,181 | 2,933 | 0.021% |
| 2002 | 2,112 | 2,796 | 0.02% |
| 2003 | 2,343 | 3,043 | 0.021% |
| 2004 | 2,222 | 2,818 | 0.018% |
| 2005 | 2,418 | 2,976 | 0.019% |
| 2006 | 2,438 | 2,906 | 0.018% |
| 2007 | 2,275 | 2,639 | 0.016% |
| 2008 | 2,332 | 2,650 | 0.016% |
| 2009 | 2,437 | 2,741 | 0.017% |
| 2010 | 2,611 | 2,911 | 0.018% |
| 2011 | 2,365 | 2,585 | 0.015% |
| 2012 | 2,331 | 2,503 | 0.014% |
| 2013 | 2,116 | 2,231 | 0.013% |
| 2014 | 2,380 | 2,465 | 0.014% |
| 2015 | 2,454 | 2,516 | 0.014% |
| 2016 | 2,657 | 2,702 | 0.014% |
| 2017 | 2,584 | 2,584 | 0.013% |
| 2018 | 2,618 | 2,561 | 0.013% |
| 2019 | 3,025 | 2,906 | 0.014% |
| 2020 | 2,988 | 2,833 | 0.014% |
| 2021 | 4,099 | 3,757 | 0.018% |
| 2022 | 3,751 | 3,213 | 0.015% |
| 2023 | 3,381 | 2,770 | 0.013% |
| 2024 | 3,279 | 2,616 | 0.012% |
| 2025 | 3,337 | 2,605 | 0.011% |
| 2026est. | 2,493 | 1,907 | 0.008% |
Fig. 2 · Where the money goes
The Agricultural Research Service and the university-grant agency NIFA carry most of the department's research money.
The major USDA budget lines tracked by AAAS. These are appropriations accounts: they overlap the budget-history series but are not an exact decomposition of it.
The numbers behind this figure
| Fiscal year | Agricultural Research Service | National Institute of Food and Agriculture | Economic Research Service | National Agricultural Statistics Service | U.S. Forest Service R&D | American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 1,034 | 1,274 | 86 | 113 | 256 | — |
| 1991 | 1,109 | 1,390 | 89 | 125 | 274 | — |
| 1992 | 1,186 | 1,475 | 94 | 132 | 288 | — |
| 1993 | 1,107 | 1,420 | 92 | 126 | 285 | — |
| 1994 | 1,122 | 1,428 | 84 | 125 | 295 | — |
| 1995 | 1,124 | 1,397 | 81 | 121 | 290 | — |
| 1996 | 1,065 | 1,341 | 78 | 119 | 261 | — |
| 1997 | 1,113 | 1,319 | 76 | 144 | 261 | — |
| 1998 | 1,160 | 1,227 | 102 | 168 | 268 | — |
| 1999 | 1,177 | 1,302 | 89 | 146 | 280 | — |
| 2000 | 1,204 | 1,314 | 88 | 136 | 278 | — |
| 2001 | 1,287 | 1,331 | 89 | 136 | 331 | — |
| 2002 | 1,583 | 1,371 | 89 | 152 | 319 | — |
| 2003 | 1,612 | 1,425 | 87 | 175 | 360 | — |
| 2004 | 1,419 | 1,382 | 87 | 157 | 362 | — |
| 2005 | 1,542 | 1,393 | 88 | 153 | 355 | — |
| 2006 | 1,515 | 1,377 | 87 | 161 | 349 | — |
| 2007 | 1,286 | 1,346 | 85 | 167 | 344 | — |
| 2008 | 1,324 | 1,335 | 87 | 182 | 353 | — |
| 2009 | 1,327 | 1,367 | 89 | 169 | 330 | 196 |
| 2010 | 1,368 | 1,477 | 90 | 177 | 341 | — |
| 2011 | 1,216 | 1,309 | 88 | 167 | 330 | — |
| 2012 | 1,155 | 1,273 | 82 | 168 | 311 | — |
| 2013 | 1,053 | 1,188 | 74 | 172 | 290 | — |
| 2014 | 1,151 | 1,314 | 80 | 165 | 300 | — |
| 2015 | 1,196 | 1,316 | 87 | 175 | 301 | — |
| 2016 | 1,356 | 1,326 | 85 | 168 | 291 | — |
| 2017 | 1,242 | 1,333 | 85 | 168 | 282 | — |
| 2018 | 1,290 | 1,352 | 83 | 184 | 285 | — |
| 2019 | 1,597 | 1,395 | 82 | 165 | 284 | — |
| 2020 | 1,491 | 838 | 78 | 165 | 288 | — |
| 2021 | 1,397 | 873 | 75 | 158 | 264 | — |
| 2022 | 1,302 | 1,108 | 72 | 186 | 374 | — |
| 2023 | 1,363 | 738 | 74 | 198 | 326 | — |
| 2024 | 1,441 | 699 | 71 | 146 | 288 | — |
| 2025 | 1,401 | 675 | 70 | 143 | 343 | — |
| 2026est. | 1,300 | 451 | 61 | 142 | 32 | — |
Fig. 3 · Basic, applied, or development
Agriculture splits its research dollars almost evenly between basic and applied work, with very little development.
Research and development at Department of Agriculture from 2000, the first year all three categories are reported, split by character of work: basic research asks how the world works, applied research aims at a specific problem, and development turns knowledge into working systems.
The numbers behind this figure
| Fiscal year | Basic research | Applied research | Development |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 942 | 1,149 | 153 |
| 2001 | 1,077 | 1,404 | 204 |
| 2002 | 1,055 | 1,158 | 175 |
| 2003 | 1,131 | 1,269 | 190 |
| 2004 | 1,052 | 1,338 | 202 |
| 2005 | 1,031 | 1,393 | 192 |
| 2006 | 1,017 | 1,370 | 199 |
| 2007 | 1,033 | 1,243 | 230 |
| 2008 | 994 | 1,302 | 180 |
| 2009 | 1,020 | 1,365 | 186 |
| 2010 | 1,105 | 1,387 | 207 |
| 2011 | 1,020 | 1,283 | 193 |
| 2012 | 995 | 1,207 | 205 |
| 2013 | 875 | 1,103 | 171 |
| 2014 | 1,027 | 1,129 | 185 |
| 2015 | 1,018 | 1,142 | 181 |
| 2016 | 1,048 | 1,138 | 180 |
| 2017 | 1,119 | 1,070 | 174 |
| 2018 | 1,061 | 1,048 | 176 |
| 2019 | 1,165 | 1,080 | 158 |
| 2020 | 1,006 | 1,218 | 280 |
| 2021 | 1,522 | 1,728 | 282 |
| 2022 | 1,254 | 1,373 | 327 |
| 2023 | 1,145 | 1,249 | 306 |
| 2024 | 1,107 | 1,116 | 205 |
| 2025 | 1,109 | 1,088 | 210 |
| 2026est. | 818 | 780 | 174 |
Appropriations
The current budget cycle: FY 2026 enacted, FY 2027 requested
What Congress enacted for fiscal year 2026 and what the White House has requested for FY 2027, account by account. Budget authority in millions of dollars.
The research and development share of this budget, as estimated by AAAS and excluding non-R&D activities in these accounts, came to $3.6B enacted for FY 2026. The ledgers below compare appropriated totals, which fund whole programs and can include activity beyond R&D.
- ARS: Salaries and Expenses, FY 2026 enacted$1.8BFY 2027 request $1.7B-5.2%
- ARS: Buildings and Facilities, FY 2026 enacted$61MFY 2027 request $0M-100%
- Total Budget, FY 2026 enacted$1.9BFY 2027 request $1.7B-8.3%
- Forest Service: Rangeland Research, FY 2026 enacted$309MFY 2027 request $58M-81.2%
- National Ag Statistics Service, FY 2026 enacted$185MFY 2027 request $187M+1.1%
- Economic Research Service, FY 2026 enacted$91MFY 2027 request $75M-17.2%
- Research and Education, FY 2026 enacted$1.1BFY 2027 request $1.1B+0%
- Extension Activities, FY 2026 enacted$561MFY 2027 request $561M-0%
- Integrated Activites, FY 2026 enacted$40MFY 2027 request $40M+0%
- Hatch Act, FY 2026 enacted$0MFY 2027 request $0M—
- 1890 Research, FY 2026 enacted$0MFY 2027 request $112M—
- AFRI, FY 2026 enacted$0MFY 2027 request $419M—
- Total Budget, FY 2026 enacted$1.7BFY 2027 request $1B-38.5%
How much research funding does the Department of Agriculture receive?
USDA had about $3.3 billion in R&D budget authority in fiscal year 2025. For fiscal year 2026, Congress enacted about $3.6 billion.
What research does USDA fund?
The Department of Agriculture funds research and development (R&D) in two main ways. The Agricultural Research Service runs the government's own network of farm-science laboratories, while the National Institute of Food and Agriculture sends grant money out to land-grant universities. Around them sit the Economic Research Service, the National Agricultural Statistics Service, and the Forest Service's research arm.
How has USDA's research budget changed over time?
Agricultural research funding has stayed within roughly $1.8–3.8 billion in 2017 dollars every year for half a century.