USDA Launches National AgTech Proving Grounds Network

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced the creation of the USDA National Proving Grounds Network for AgTech (NPG-Ag), a nationwide initiative to evaluate agricultural technologies under real-world U.S. farming and ranching conditions.

The network is designed to test and validate both existing and emerging technologies, including digital and AI-driven tools, and provide farmers and ranchers with performance data to support investment decisions. According to the USDA, the initiative aims to deliver practical insights on technology performance and economic return.

“Agricultural research in the United States has long supported the development of practical solutions that improve farm and ranch productivity while strengthening rural economies; indeed, innovation has been our competitive edge and ensured food security since the nation’s founding 250 years ago,” said Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics Dr. Scott Hutchins. “By establishing a coordinated national research network to objectively validate new and emerging technologies, especially digital and AI-driven technologies, we are helping ensure row crop, specialty crop and livestock producers all have access to reliable performance data for their investment decisions with a goal to accelerate adoption of AgTech innovations. Moreover, we fully expect that NPG-Ag will expand and facilitate the development and application of emerging technologies across the public and private sector to uniquely benefit U.S. agriculture.”

The initiative will be led by USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) in coordination with other USDA research agencies. Grand Farm will serve as the National Program Manager, working with land-grant universities as research and testing partners.

“ARS has long played a vital role in driving productivity gains and strengthening the global competitiveness of U.S. agriculture by delivering scientific solutions to our nation’s most pressing agricultural challenges,” said ARS Administrator Joon Park. “ARS has established a new Director of Digital Agriculture to position the agency for the AI and digital agriculture era — and to support the responsible adoption of novel innovations. This position will help empower our scientists, programs and external partners to develop, adopt, evaluate and deploy emerging technologies that enhance public–private innovation and accelerate the research-to-farmer pipeline. As the lead for USDA’s NPG-AgTech, ARS remains firmly committed to ensuring that emerging technologies are rigorously evaluated through a transparent, science-based process supporting their adoption.”

Agricultural technology companies will be able to enroll products through Grand Farm when the request for products opens to the public.