Lincoln University is getting the third largest share of a $18.9 million federal agriculture grant to improve research facilities at 19 of the nation's historically black land-grant colleges and universities.
LU is receiving $1,185,476 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).
Joe Leonard,Jr., USDA's assistant secretary for civil rights, announced the awards during a visit last week to North Carolina A&T University, Greensboro.
USDA said the renewed awards are intended to build or improve the HBCUs' agricultural and food science research facilities and equipment.
The United States has three groups of "land grant" colleges and universities receiving federal assistance for agriculture research and for educational assistance to farmers and other members of the public, mainly through extension programs.
The federal money must be matched with state or local funds.
The first land grant schools were designated in 1862 - during the Civil War - when Congress passed the Morrill Act. The University of Missouri-Columbia is one of those land grant schools. Most are public universities like MU, Iowa State and Kansas State. But some are private institutions like Cornell University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The second group was named in 1890, with Congress' passage of the Second Morrill Act. Those schools generally were colleges and universities, like Lincoln, created to educate African Americans.
A 1994 law added Native American institutions to the land grant program.
USDA the new grants build on the agency's ongoing efforts to foster strong partnerships with the 1890 community, ensure equal access to USDA programs and services, and support educational opportunities for the next generation of farmers and ranchers.
This month USDA is celebrating historic progress over the last eight years to improve the quality of life and access to opportunity for all Americans. Learn more online in The People's Department: A New Era for Civil Rights at USDA.
NIFA invests in and advances innovative and transformative initiatives to solve societal challenges and ensure the long-term viability of agriculture.
NIFA said its integrated research, education and extension programs support "the best and brightest scientists and extension personnel, and have resulted in user-inspired groundbreaking discoveries that are combating childhood obesity, improving and sustaining rural economic growth, addressing water availability issues, increasing food production, finding new sources of energy, mitigating climate variability and ensuring food safety."
More information about NIFA's impact on agricultural science is at www.nifa.usda.gov/impacts.