Baton Rouge Reporter

U.S. Congressman Garret Graves of South Louisiana announced today that his effort to secure critical funding for the USDA Sugarcane Research Unit (SRU) in Schriever, Louisiana, has cleared an important first hurdle. Graves’ $5 million allocation for the SRU is included in the FY2025 Agriculture Appropriations bill, which the House will consider in July. Including this $5 million, Graves has secured a total of $24 million to promote sugarcane research aimed at improving production, efficiency, and resilience within Louisiana’s $3 billion industry.

“Louisiana’s more than 400 sugarcane farms contribute over $3 billion to the annual economy, directly supporting 17,000 agricultural jobs,” said Congressman Graves. “Our sugarcane farmers compete against unfair, cheap and subsidized foreign producers while bearing the burden of high inflation and energy costs. The SRU research helps level the global playing field by making production more efficient, abundant and resilient. I am proud to support the work of the USDA to protect important American commodity crops and the farmers that grow them.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Sugarcane Research Unit supports this critical industry by researching and developing improved varieties of sugarcane, expanding cropping ranges, developing environmentally friendly production strategies, and combatting a constantly evolving pest complex that includes diseases, insects, and weeds. The funding will facilitate completing the consolidation of the USDA/ARS-SRU program and personnel into a single location by finishing construction on a laboratory and administrative building. Completion of these facilities would maximize operational efficiencies and greatly improve taxpayer investment effectiveness.