By Jazmyne Martinez, The Columbia Missourian

COLUMBIA, Mo. (DTN) -- A major soybean research project, which collaborates with the University of Missouri (MU), will shut down April 15 due to President Donald Trump's dismantling of funding to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The Soybean Innovation Lab, based at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, was formed in 2011 to provide researchers and organizations with the resources needed to advance soybean development. The lab is comprised of over 100 technical soybean experts from 24 countries, each representing a variety of institutions.

The land-grant system will lose 19 innovation labs across 17 states, including Missouri.

MU has been involved in the Soybean Innovation Lab since 2013, said Kerry Clark, an MU researcher who leads the mechanization division for the lab. Clark said MU's sector of the Soybean Innovation Lab research received $1.2 million, or about $150,000 annually, before losing funding.

As part of the project, Missouri has been doing research on African soybean diseases that would help Missouri farmers combat a disease that can decimate soybean crops. The research found diseases in African soybean crops that could be prevented in Missouri and abroad, Clark said.

"(The cease in funding and the end of the project) puts us many years behind now in trying to combat soybean rust, which is a disease that can take out soybean crops entirely," Clark said.

In Missouri, soybeans cover more than 5 million acres of the state every year. Soybeans are the No. 1 crop in Missouri, leading in both acreage and value, according to the Missouri Soybean Center. The economic health of Missouri depends on the growth of soybeans because the yearly on-farm value of soybeans is greater than $2.5 billion.

"Soybeans are such an important crop for the state of Missouri," said Brady Deaton, a former MU chancellor and member of the Soybean Innovation Lab advisory board. "... So new knowledge, which is being generated by this innovation lab, flows to all producers and consumers of soybeans, and in that sense, has some direct effect."

Deaton said the end of the project will affect knowledge about soybean breeding, soybean diseases and the uses of technology in Africa and other parts of the world.

Missouri's research pioneered new technologies, particularly threshing, which is the process of removing the soybeans from their pods. The research also focused on the uses of soybeans and nutrition, and understanding how it was being used for feeding both people and livestock, Deaton said.

The funding disruption also cuts off relationships between the research, business and government sector, said a social media statement from Peter Goldsmith, the director of the Soybean Innovation Lab. He said the labs will lose relationships and collaboration with local businesses, organizations and government.

"U.S. soybean farmers lose one of their best tools to expand their markets and U.S. standards globally," Goldsmith said in his post. "Local economies in emerging markets lose soybean as an incomparable engine growing wealth, prosperity, and economic development."

The story goes deeper than just Midwest soybeans. As DTN has reported, the shutdown of USAID has led to food aid being stuck in limbo. The USAID Inspector General issued a report Monday pointing out $489 million in food commodities "at ports, in transit, and in warehouses at risk of spoilage, unanticipated storage needs, and diversion." The report cited details about food stored at warehouses in Texas, East Africa and South Africa. USAID staff cited more than 500,000 tons of U.S. food aid either on ships or at ports. That food aid was at risk of spoilage or storage needs.

Republicans in Congress are now trying to move the "Food for Peace" program, which buys about $2 billion in commodities every year, from USAID's control over to the Department of Agriculture.

Deaton said the soybean research fit into the goals of the USAID because it addressed high-priority issues, including human and economic development around the world.

"The sudden cessation or cutting of the funds is just very damaging we will find, I think, to the efforts of the United States and its foreign policy to bring about positive, meaningful change in those parts of the world where it's working, and it works in very targeted ways, in some of the poorest countries," Deaton said.

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Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the Columbia Missourian. It can be republished in print or online.

DTN Ag Policy Editor Chris Clayton contributed to this report.

Also see "Republicans in Congress Propose Moving Food for Peace from USAID to USDA" here: https://www.dtnpf.com/…

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