When ground was broken for the North Carolina State University Plant Sciences building in 2019, the idea of a plant improvement facility at the Lake Wheeler Field Road Laboratory just five miles from downtown Raleigh and the NCSU campus was still in its infancy stage. 

But on Sept. 6, exactly four years to the date of the 2019 groundbreaking ceremony for the Plant Sciences Building on the NCSU Centennial Campus, ground was broken for the new plant improvement facility at NCSU’s Lake Wheeler farm.  

USDA’s Agricultural Research Service and NCSU’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences hosted the groundbreaking ceremony for the new building, expected to be completed 900 days later. 

“Today is a great day because we mark the idea that is one step closer to having a plant improvement facility become a reality. When we get this completed, these facilities are going to be a prize asset for ag science,” said Garey Fox, the new dean of NCSU’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.  

The facility will house approximately 30 to 40 scientists from ARS and NCSU, who will conduct research on maize, soybean, wheat, cotton, and peanuts. When completed, the 51,296 square-foot, single-story building will feature processing areas, office and research spaces organized in wings corresponding to their respective crops. Simon Liu, the ARS administrator, said the building will cost $38 million and will house groundbreaking agricultural research. 

In his comments, Fox said the facility will be critical for the long-term success of agriculture, not only for North Carolina, but for the region and the world. Fox said the facility underscores ARS’s commitment to support agricultural research that addresses the challenges impacting both farmers and consumers. He said the new building will benefit the entire public. 

“That’s why this partnership is so important between N.C. State and the USDA ARS. N.C. State has been working in the plant sciences for a really long time, 130 years since our founding. We focus on anything dealing with agriculture, from the seed to harvest to supply chain to consumption to post consumption. We published research in a lot of different areas. This is going to elevate us to an even higher level because of this partnership with ARS,” Fox said. 

“As the new dean, I will promise you that N.C. State will continue to support this partnership. We will be able to tackle the grand challenges if we combine the plant sciences building with the plant improvement facility and the other upgrades that are coming to our Lake Wheeler Road Field Lab,” Fox said.   

“We are so proud of the partnership we have at NC State with the North Carolina Department of Agriculture to create four field labs and 18 research stations across the entire state of North Carolina. You think about the geographic diversity we have in those research stations; we can do research that no other place can do. The Plant Improvement facility with ARS takes us to a new height.” 

At the groundbreaking ceremony, Chavonda Jacobs-Young, USDA chief scientist and undersecretary for research, education, and economics, said “this investment in modern scientific infrastructure reflects USDA’s commitment to pioneering research and cutting-edge solutions that ensure growers can be more productive, profitable and resilient. It also underscores the importance of our partnership with NC State to bring state-of-the-art scientific computing to this campus that will help expand the frontier of agricultural science.” 

Other dignitaries who spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony were NCSU Chancellor Randy Woodson; U.S. Rep. Deborah Ross (D-NC-02); U.S. Rep. Wiley Nickel (D-NC-13); Archie Tucker, ARS Director of Southeast Area; Kent Burkey, Plant Physiologist, ARS Plant Science Research Unit; and Muquarrab Qureshi, Location Coordinator, USDA-ARS, Raleigh Location.