NAAA has been successful in preserving the Aerial Application Technology Research Unit (AATRU) within USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS). at a time when lawmakers outside of agricultural regions and presently when the Department of Government Efficiency doesn’t understand the importance of agricultural research and its return on investment; however, NAAA has been able to keep aerial application research funding relatively steady by having supportive report language inserted into past appropriation bills and the Farm Bills. Even this current fiscal year (2026) the vote to end the record-long 43-day U.S. government shutdown included a legislative package to fund the Department of Agriculture and the FDA, the Department of Veterans Affairs and military construction projects, and the operations of Congress for the entire 2026 fiscal year. This legislation includes within its committee report—thanks to NAAA’s policy advocacy efforts—language supportive of the Aerial Application Technology Research Unit (AATRU) within USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS). The supportive language reads as follows:
Aerial Application — The Committee recognizes the importance of aerial application to control crop pests and diseases and to fertilize and seed crops and forests. Aerial application is useful not only to ensure overall food safety and food security, but also to promote public health through improved mosquito control and public health application techniques. The Committee urges ARS to prioritize research focused on optimizing aerial spray technologies for on-target deposition and drift mitigation and to work cooperatively with the Environmental Protection Agency to update their pesticide review methodology.
NAAA will continue to push for NAAA funding of the program so long as the research is being focused on further integrating georeferencing, variable flow control, meteorologic, digital mapping, and aircraft attitude technologies on-board the aircraft to automate the spray systems further resulting in mitigating drift, conserving fuel, and making aerial applications more efficacious, while allowing the pilot to focus on flying the aircraft more safely by allowing that pilot to observing obstacles outside the cockpit.
Favorable committee report language sends a strong message to the USDA to continue to sustain appropriate funding for aerial application research. This message couldn’t be more important as USDA-ARS has had its budget cut over the past few years resulting in the shutdown of 10 research units.
While it is impressive aerial application research funding has remained constant over the years, inflation in salaries, facility maintenance, health care costs, attrition, and ARS administrative fees have unfortunately resulted in fewer dollars to conduct research at the AATR unit. To adequately fund research costs at the 2002 level the program would need to add at least two scientists for technical staff supporting the Aerial Application Technology Research program and to initiative to update coding and to conduct data analytics to the AGDISP atmospheric model.
As such NAAA has sought a total increase of $1.75 million for AATRU. Federal aerial application research has significantly benefited the industry over the years. The AATRU has provided sound reason to the public indicating that ag aircraft equipped for crop applications are not a bioterrorism security threat; has provided mobile technologies accounting for equipment and application setup to calculate the most effective and targeted droplet size; and is educating ag aviators on increasing their fuel efficiency, and applied materials efficiency by utilizing precision ag/variable rate technology and how to utilize technology to conduct aerial images and crop-sensing by air. The AATRU is also helping conduct a study to lessen the burdensome effects of EPA’s vegetative strip requirements as part of its endangered species protections by researching how rice levees can serve the same purpose as a vegetative strip.
In addition to lobbying the program on Capitol Hill, NAAA has worn out shoe leather at USDA with key officials over the past few years extolling the benefits of the AATRU unit. Officials include administrators, associate administrator and budget officials of the ARS; individuals at the USDA’s Office of Pest Management Programs; and USDA undersecretaries of research, education, and economics. NAAA has received some positive feedback from the USDA too. ARS officials have told NAAA the language in the appropriation’s report makes the task of keeping the funding for the AATRU unit easier. USDA statistics affirm the necessity for agricultural research, in that for every $1 invested in agricultural research $20 is returned to the economy. Founding father Benjamin Franklin once said, “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”
The challenges for all agricultural research and federal discretionary programs are great. With no end in sight on the continual growth of the federal debt—nearly $38.5 trillion and growing—significant spending cuts have been and will continue to be sought. When it comes to federal agricultural research dollars it is almost inevitable we will continue to see a cinching of budgets because only two percent of our country’s population is involved in agriculture and it is also unlikely this small percentage will be able to influence our nation’s policymakers who set ag research spending budgets. This has been proven recently by challenges involved in enacting a Farm Bill this Congress. NAAA’s efforts urging the federal government to maintain current levels of aerial application research will continue but, again, it will be a challenging undertaking. To support its goal of increasing funding for the program, NAAA initially established a key coalition of national commodity, farm, and crop protection product manufacturers and applicator groups to join to support funding for additional research. NAAA has also retained the outside lobbying sources of the LeMunyon Group to assist on this project. In addition, efforts to promote the AATRU as a green technology have been used because of the fuel conserved and land and natural resources that are and will continue to be preserved as a result of the judicious use of crop protection products that are able to be made as a result of this important research.
Recent Updates
The House Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agency Appropriations Act, 2027 included a committee report stating “The Committee recognizes the importance of aerial application to control crop pests and diseases and to fertilize and seed crops and forests.” The bill supports continued funding of the USDA-ARS budget at at least the FY2026 funding levels with no research programs being terminated. It urged ARS to prioritize aerial application research on spray accuracy, drift reduction, and EPA pesticide review methods. This funding is still awating Senate action.