INSTITUTE, W.Va. — After being the only land-grant higher education institution in the entire country lacking an agriculture research laboratory, that is all changing now on the campus of West Virginia State University.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the new $50 million agriculture lab was held at WVSU Tuesday.
WVSU President Ericke Cage was joined Tuesday afternoon by Governor Jim Justice, state Agriculture Commissioner Kent Leonhardt and members of the state legislature who played a hand in bringing the state-of-the-art agriculture lab to campus.
Cage said he is very proud that the state was able to keep its promise to WVSU for this momentous endeavor as he knew they would.
Ericke Cage
“I have a strong sense of pride, a sense of pride in the fact that the state of West Virginia, Governor Justice, Speaker Roger Hanshaw, Senate President Craig Blair, and all of the members of the legislature really stood up and stood behind this project,” Cage said.
The project was initially set into motion after Justice first proposed it during his State of the State Address back in January that he wanted the state to allocate $50 million to bring the new lab to the campus of WVSU.
After lawmakers approved the $50 million appropriation for the lab during a May special legislative session, Justice officially signed a bill for the project in June.
The new lab will not only serve as a space for agricultural research and development for the students at WVSU but the West Virginia Department of Agriculture as well.
Kent Leonhardt
Leonhardt said this means a lot for the Department of Agriculture and the continuation of their work with WVSU and the entire state.
“It’s going to expand what we’re already doing in West Virginia, it’s going to bring a tighter relationship between the students and some of my staff, and hopefully we will be able to attract more of the great research we already are doing at the Department of Agriculture,” said Leonhardt.
The future facility will also be home to the new Purdy School of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources.
The naming of that facility was a part of Tuesday’s ceremony after the Purdy family made a $2.5 million donation supporting the development of the new school. It’s also the single largest cash gift WVSU has ever received in the history of the institution.
Cage said the facility as a whole will be a win-win for the university as well as for the state.
“Combining the expertise of West Virginia State as a land-grant institution with the expertise of the West Virginia Department of Agriculture, it’s really going to help support the growth within the agriculture sector and support the overall agriculture workforce in West Virginia,” he said.
The new lab is expected to build WVSU’s already expansive agriculture research portfolio it has been working to develop since it was founded as a land-grant institution in 1891.
This research portfolio includes Aquaculture, Bioenergy and Bioproducts, Environmental Microbiology and Biotechnology, Horticulture, Natural Resources Management among other subject areas.
Vice President, Dean and Director for Agriculture Research and Extension at WVSU Ami Smith said this is an exciting opportunity in agricultural research and development.
“To have this kind of facility on our campus really creates an educational experience for our students like no other,” Smith said. “We already have a really deep relationship with the West Virginia Department of Ag, but now having this collocated facility is really going to give access to our students that they don’t have right now, the agricultural work and facilities that they are engaged in as well as the agriculture work we are doing here at the university.”
Smith said some main areas of focus which will be offered in the new agriculture lab will include the Veterinary Technology program and the Food Science Academic program, and will offer some collaboration efforts with the work the Department of Ag. is already doing.
She said it will serve as a way to build the state’s agricultural workforce while also addressing food security needs.
“Within West Virginia specifically we are number one as the most food insecure state in the country with 15-percent of the population, so there’s a lot of need there we need to address in our agricultural work,” said Smith.
Leonhardt said he hopes people can see the continuous progress being made within the agriculture industry in West Virginia when they see the future facility, because it’s a reflection of what the state was founded on.
“Our roots are here in agriculture and we need to make sure that we nurture those roots and grow great things in agriculture, and we can do better than we’re doing, even though we are on an upward path in agriculture,” Leonhardt said.
Cage said they are currently in the planning phase for the facility. They presented renderings Tuesday of what the future ag lab may look like although it’s subject to change.
WVSU anticipates the facility to be complete by early 2027.
Cage said agriculture in an industry that’s never going away and they’re happy they can be a part of its growth.
“Agriculture very much is the future, not just of West Virginia but of the country and the world.”