College Research
This program was initiated in FY 2000 to assist 1994 Land-Grant Institutions (Tribal Colleges) to conduct agricultural research that addresses high priority concerns of tribal, national, or multistate significance.
Currently, Fort Peck Community College has a research program focused on utilizing the conservation reserve program to sustain operations for American Indian producers on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. The goal of this project is to enable American Indian farmers and ranchers on the Fort Peck Indian reservation to effectively participate in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), and to maintain the long run financial and environmental sustainability of their operations. This project includes an outreach program to deliver materials to producers on the Fort Peck Reservation and other Montana reservations, via distance education. Findings from the project will be shared with other agricultural producers in the Northern Great Plains through outreach education bulletins and access to computer-based decision tools via the web-site of FPCC and MSU’s Agricultural Marketing Policy Center. This project will serve over 100 American Indian agricultural producers as well as managers of tribally owned lands on the Fort Peck Reservation. Tribal leaders will benefit from this research project, which will enhance their ability to effectively manage tribal resources, and will provide much needed information to encourage renewable resource-based economic development on reservations in the Northern Great Plains.