Advancing Automation Research and Development in Agriculture Act

This Act may be cited as the “Advancing Automation Research and Development in Agriculture Act”.

(a) In general.— Section 412 of the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998 (7 U.S.C. 7632) is amended—

(1) in subsection (f)(3), by striking “subsection (d) and (j),” and inserting “subsections (d), (j), and (k),”;

(2) in subsection (g)—

(A) in paragraph (3), by adding at the end the following:

“(C) Waiver.— The Secretary may waive the matching funds requirement under subparagraph (A).”; and

(B) in paragraph (4), by striking “the Initiative” and inserting “this section”;

(3) by redesignating subsections (j) and (k) as subsections (k) and (l), respectively;

(4) by inserting after subsection (i) the following:

“(j) Specialty crop mechanization and automation research and development program.—

(1) Establishment and purpose.— The Secretary shall establish a competitive research and extension grant program to increase the competitiveness of specialty crops in the United States through the advancement and acceleration of mechanization and automation, under which the Secretary awards competitive grants to eligible entities—

(A) to create or improve cost-effective mechanization, automation, and other innovations and technologies—

(i) to reduce the manual labor requirements of a specialty crop grower;

(ii) to improve specialty crop farmworker safety and health or working conditions; and

(iii) to increase the efficiency of specialty crop—

(I) production;

(II) resource management;

(III) harvesting;

(IV) processing;

(V) postharvest technologies; or

(VI) packaging;

(B) to increase the adoption of specialty crop mechanization, automation, and other innovations and technologies by—

(i) emphasizing adoption drivers, which may include connectivity, autonomy, reliability, durability, in-field validation, and cost-effectiveness; or

(ii) investing in and developing human capital to increase the capacity of the specialty crop sector to work with new technologies; or

(C) to accelerate specialty crop mechanization and automation through—

(i) prototype development;

(ii) in-field trial testing;

(iii) ongoing industry engagement; or

(iv) rapid commercialization.

(2) Priority.— In awarding grants under this subsection, the Secretary shall give priority to proposals for projects that—

(A) address the training or retraining of farmworkers (including to maintain adequate worker safety) to operate, repair, program, or otherwise maintain mechanization and automation solutions involved in the project; and

(B) include explicit mechanisms to communicate the results of the project to producers and the public.

(3) Applicability.— Subsections (a), (c) through (g), (i), and (l) shall apply to the program established under this subsection.”;

(5) in subsection (k) (as so redesignated), in paragraph (5), by striking “In addition to the amounts reserved under subsection (k)(1)(C), there” and inserting “There”; and

(6) in subsection (l) (as so redesignated)—

(A) in paragraph (1), by striking subparagraphs (C) and (D) and inserting the following:

“(C) Reservation.— For each of fiscal years 2026 through 2031, the Secretary shall reserve not less than $30,000,000 of the funds made available under subparagraph (B) to carry out the program established under subsection (j).

(D) Reallocation.— Notwithstanding paragraph (4), any funds reserved under subparagraph (C) that remain unobligated at the end of the fiscal year following the fiscal year in which such funds are first made available shall be reallocated to carry out the Initiative.”;

(B) in paragraph (2)—

(i) in the paragraph heading, by striking “for fiscal years 2014 through 2023”;

(ii) by striking “In addition” and inserting the following:

“(A) In general.— In addition”; and

(iii) in subparagraph (A) (as so designated), by striking “2023” and inserting “2031”;

(C) by redesignating paragraph (3) as subparagraph (B) of paragraph (2) and indenting appropriately; and

(D) by redesignating paragraphs (4) and (5) as paragraphs (3) and (4), respectively.

(b) Technical and conforming amendments.—

(1) Section 1408A of the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 3123a) is amended—

(A) in subsection (a)(2)(A), by striking “(j)(3)” and inserting “(k)(3)”;

(B) in subsection (c)(5), by striking “specialty crop research initiative” and inserting “programs”; and

(C) in subsection (g), in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by striking “(j)” and inserting “(k)”.

(2) Section 251(f)(1)(D)(x) of the Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994 (7 U.S.C. 6971(f)(1)(D)(x)) is amended by striking “specialty crop research initiative under section 412 of the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998” and inserting “programs under section 412 of the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998 (7 U.S.C. 7632)”.

(3) Section 12605(c) of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (7 U.S.C. 7632 note; Public Law 115–334) is amended—

(A) by striking “412(j)” and inserting “412(k)”; and

(B) by striking “7632(j))” and inserting “7632(k))”.