Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** a small but growing segment of…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** a small but growing segment of the midwest region's important organic grain production industry focuses on food-grade grains-higher value grain crops intended for direct human consumption, oftentimes distributed through local processors and manufacturers. The production of food-grade grains for local communities has promoted well-being, rural development and economic growth, and contributed to demand for organic grains. Thus far, food-grade grain production has been dominated by wheat and corn, but oats and buckwheat are grown by farmers in rotation because of their agronomic and environmental benefits; however, a current lack of markets, resources, and processing infrastructure prevents growers from selling these crops at profitable prices. Food-grade grains have not received much attention from public research or extension agencies as they are considered minor crops; however, our grower-focused nonprofit organizations have received increasing inquiries from farmers regarding resource development to improve information availability for these crops. Preliminary stakeholder discussions have revealed a need for more economic cost/return production data, agronomic management recommendations, crop variety availability and development, processing and end-user capacity, and regional network development. Given the dearth of foundational information related to these crops, we have developed a planning project proposal to build the foundation to strategically design a larger project that generates recommendations from fundamental economic and agronomic and crop research, to value chain and market development. During this planning project, we will perform analyses of existing economic information to develop preliminary cost and return estimates for OAT and buckwheat production on small and midsize farms in the midwestat the farm level, as well as adoption by local/regional food businesses. We will address the lack of resources for organic growers in decision making around OAT and buckwheat variety selection for food grade specifically, especially for buckwheat, where virtually no variety development has been performed in the region for culinary buckwheat applications. To connect actors throughout the local/regional supply chain to begin network development and create common purpose around identifying opportunites and challenges, we will convene at least six focus groups with seed industry experts, plant breeders, growers, grain cleaners, millers, distillers, chefs, and other end users. Focus group priority setting around field research and supply chain development needs will be used to develop research and economic objectives for an orei implementation proposal. We will also convene a team of regional or transregional collaborators from different supply chain sectors to participate in developing atier I or II orei implementation proposal to be submitted in the FY2025 funding cycle. In the near term, this project will generate a variety trial report, a, cost/returns economic factsheet, and a multimedia report on focus group learnings, to be shared via the web with midwest grain chain stakeholders.