U.S. Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) announced on April 7 that Grand Farm, a North Dakota-headquartered AgTech ecosystem and innovation testbed, will serve as the National Program Manager for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Proving Grounds Network for AgTech (NPG-Ag) initiative.
The NPG-Ag is a nationwide initiative designed to rigorously evaluate agricultural technologies under real-world U.S. farming and ranching conditions. Grand Farm will be the first proving ground in the network, focused on weed control.
“With Grand Farm serving as both the National Program Manager and the first proving ground for this USDA initiative, North Dakota’s technology ecosystem is front and center in efforts across the country to develop the next generation of precision ag technology,” Sen. Hoeven said on Tuesday.
The initiative will be spearheaded by USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS), working in coordination with other USDA research agencies. Grand Farm will work alongside land-grant universities like North Dakota State University (NDSU) that will serve as primary research and testing partners.
A cooperative agreement inked in 2022 between Grand Farm, ARS, NDSU, and others serves as the genesis for the NPG-Ag, according to Sen. Hoeven.
“When we provided an additional $2 million to establish an ARS work site at Grand Farm, USDA saw this as an opportunity to create a national network of businesses and land grant institutions, with Grand Farm managing the program,” the senator explained. “What this means for farmers [is that] new technologies will be tested and proven to work in real-world conditions, giving our producers certainty when they invest in the future of their operations.”
As chairman of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, Sen. Hoeven has secured a total of $11 million for the cooperative agreement to date, which helped secure Grand Farm’s role as National Program Manager.
This includes $2 million in additional funding that Hoeven provided in fiscal year 2026 to create an ARS work site at Grand Farm, which USDA is utilizing to establish the Program Management Office for the NPG-Ag.
Specifically, the new initiative will test and validate new and emerging precision agriculture technologies under real farming conditions. Over time, the program will expand into other locations and priorities, such as disease prevention, animal production and water management.
The goal is to help farmers make informed decisions when investing in the future of their operations, providing a standardized, data-driven process to evaluate the performance of new technologies, said Sen. Hoeven.
As National Program Manager, Grand Farm will facilitate the logistics of the National Proving Grounds Network, which will include technology companies, ARS, and land-grant institutions like NDSU.
Grand Farm also will lead engagement with technology companies looking to test new innovations, and provide facilities and equipment to support technology testing and analysis.
“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,” said USDA Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics Scott Hutchins. “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.”