Source: NCDA&CS, 6/13/14

 Beginning with the June newsletter, each month will feature one of the department's 23 divisions to educate our readers on the wide array of duties and responsibilities. In honor of the event at Central Crops Research Station earlier this month, the featured division for June is Research Stations.

The Research Stations Division partners with North Carolina's two land-grant universities, N.C. State and NC A&T, to share one common mission: To manage crop and livestock facilities that serve as a platform for agriculture research to make farming more efficient, productive and profitable, while maintaining a sound environment and providing consumers with safe and affordable products.

Research Stations was first created in 1877 through legislation by the General Assembly that also created the N.C. Department of Agriculture. However, in 1877 research stations were known as "Experiment Stations". Over the years, these stations have evolved to meet the varing needs of both the farmers and citizens of this state. The latest addition to the divison is the N.C. Bioenergy Research Initiative, which is located in Oxford and was created through an appropriation in the 2013-14 state budget. The mission of the initiative is to support the research and development of forestry-based and agricultural feedstocks for bioenergy production, agribusiness development, and cooperative research for biofuels production.

For more information about Research Stations, please visit their website.