Help Innovate Agriculture!

Sometimes, all it takes is a fresh perspective to make a big jump in progress.

USDA is in cooperation with Agricultural Innovation Prize: Powered by 40 Chances to find the best new ideas for addressing the challenges in agriculture and food systems.

This competition, coordinated by the University of Wisconsin at Madison with support from the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, will award $215,000 in prizes to students with the most promising innovations in agriculture. The grand prize winner gets $100,000!

USDA is reaching out to its university partners to pass the word along to potential contestants and to its own agency scientists to serve as mentors to help teams take their idea to the next level.

If this challenge sounds fun and important, and you’re ready to sign up as a contestant, go to http://agprize.com for more information about the scope, prizes, and timeline for the competition. You must submit your idea by February 28^th, 2014, so get brainstorming! We, here at the USDA, can’t wait to see what you can do.

And if you want to be a judge or a mentor to student teams, head over to http://agprize.com/information-for-the-public/judges to get involved.