NAAA Joined by Major Crop Organizations Advocating Federal Support to U.S. Senator Hyde Smith for AGDISP Drift Model Modernization and Aerial Application Technology Research

NAAA, backed by the National Cotton Council (NCC) and the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), is actively advocating federal support for the AGDISP atmospheric drift model modernization and aerial application technology research conducted by the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS). As Congress begins to consider its appropriations for agricultural research for the upcoming federal fiscal year, commencing October 1, 2026, it has been making visits to a number of House and Senate offices to include federal funding to modernize AGDISP through an effort to update the coding of the drift model’s software. This effort will result in the model being better able to take into account the effectiveness of drift reduction technologies and techniques, to ultimately lead the EPA to provide more flexibility for pesticide applicators and a reduction, if not elimination, of buffer zones on farmers’ land that use these proven technologies and techniques.  Presently, over half a million dollars has been raised by pesticide applicators, farm organizations (including NCC and NCGA), pesticide manufacturers and other stakeholders to modernize AGDISP’s code. A successful effort to include federal agricultural research dollars to the AGDISP project will meet the recoding funding objectives and establish an even more credible public-private partnership. 

Currently, the AGDISP software is under the proprietorship of the ARS’s Aerial Application Technology research unit.  NAAA is also advocating for additional federal spending at the unit due to the program not receiving any additional funding to address rising inflation costs since the very early 2,000’s.  NAAA, NCC, and NCGA met earlier this week with U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), an important member of the Senate Subcommittee on Agricultural Appropriations, seeking her help for the additional federal funds for AGDISP modernization and ARS aerial application technology research.