Recent news of Congressionally Approved Special Grants to Kansas State University (K-State) is welcome to the university's administrators and researchers. Many projects were maintained at  current levels, and several received funding increases.

"I really want to thank our entire congressional delegation for their hard work in securing this funding, especially in such a tough budget atmosphere," said Fred Cholick, dean of the College of Agriculture and director of K-State Research and Extension. "In this time of tight budgets and cuts to many projects and programs, I think the
ability to maintain or increase funding speaks to the quality and impact of the work being conducted by our K-State Research and Extension faculty."

Projects receiving substantial funding increases were the "Great Plains Sorghum Improvement and Utilization Center" and the "Ogallala Aquifer" projects, which are multi-state in nature.

The Great Plains Sorghum Improvement and Utilization Center project at K-State received $377,000 out of a total of $736,000. This project has K-State working in conjunction with Texas Tech University, Texas A&M University's Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension System, and U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists located on the three campuses.

"The Great Plains Sorghum Improvement and Utilization Center at Kansas State University is the only interdisciplinary team of researchers in the country focused solely on increasing the profitability of sorghum production and utilization in the United States," said Mitch Tuinstra, sorghum breeder at K-State. "We welcome
the increase in funding to support our research efforts and the potential for even greater regional focus.

"Sorghum is one of the most important summer crops produced in the region. With the anticipated completion of sorghum genome sequencing efforts in 2007, a major goal of our research efforts will be to discover how we can best use this information about the genes of sorghum to produce new and more productive crop varieties and more efficient production systems."

The Ogallala Aquifer project involves scientists with USDA ARS in Bushland and Lubbock (Tex.), Texas A&M, Texas Tech, West Texas A&M University, and K-State. This project received an increase of $1,375,000 for a new total of $3.875 million, a share of which will come to K-State.

"The Ogallala Aquifer is a critically important water source in western Kansas," said Bill Hargrove, director of the Kansas Center for Agricultural Resources and the Environment (KCARE), based at K-State. "Our research is aimed at how we can prolong the life of the aquifer, which is running out in some areas. This will help us develop management practices for the aquifer, which is really the lifeblood of the economy in western Kansas."

A project based at K-State, the Wheat Genetic and Genomic Resources Center (WGGRC), received an increase of $89,000 for a new total of $344,000.

"This is indeed great news as we embark on making a DNA clone-based physical map of the wheat genome, the most complex genome mapping project as yet to be undertaken anywhere," said Bikram Gill, K-State distinguished professor of plant pathology and director of the WGGRC.

"The increased funding is a small step toward building our infrastructure to handle such a project -- estimated to cost billions of dollars -- to enhance wheat genetics for profitable production by wheat growers."

Other projects receiving continuing or enhanced funding were: Water Conservation, Air Quality, Animal Science Food Safety Consortium, National Canola Research Program-Great Plains, National Plant Diagnostic Network, Sun Grant Initiative, Comparative Genomics for Global Cereals Improvement, and Managing Karnal Bunt of Wheat.

Some of the Air Quality funds allocated to KCARE will also help researchers develop management practices that can help with dust control in beef cattle feedlots, Hargrove said.

"We greatly appreciate the Kansas congressional delegation's hard work in securing funding for these projects of such great importance to the Kansas and Great Plains' economy," Cholick said. "The funds will be used wisely and will produce positive results for the citizens of Kansas."

K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus in Manhattan.