The High Plains of New Mexico always has been a benchmark for the Cooperative Extension Service and Agricultural Experiment Station at NMSU, because the people of this region don't take agriculture for granted for a moment. They expect our attention, as they should.

In the year plus that I have occupied the dean's chair in the College of Agriculture and Home Economics, the college's commitments to various aspects of the agricultural industry have been called into question by people of this region and others.

In a way, it is to be expected. We are on the edge of a tremendous spiral that is downsizing government. Many of our clients forget that their land-grant institution is part of that trend. We have managed to offset much of the downsizing by receiving more restricted funds. That means we accept money through grants and contracts that can only be spent in ways restricted by the contracts we sign.

The result is that we may have the same number of faculty or staff we had a decade ago, but they are not in the same places and doing the same things. Many are restricted to duties as defined by the funders. Consequently, we are trying to do more with the same number of people and not always succeeding.

Even when we approached the state in the past decade for more resources, we've been most successful when promising to restrict use of funding enhancements to specific programs outlined. The result is an accentuation of resource reallocation.

In the end, what suffers is the ability of the land-grant college to be flexible and ready to address agriculture's needs in the way people remember we did a generation ago. Is the answer for agriculturists to form tight-knit blocs to win attention for their commodity? That may work in the short run, but the research and development infrastructure for agriculture will soon have no foundation, even while we try to help one commodity group or another.

The issue of infrastructure is an important one. Notice that as funds became available through good economic times, the U.S. Congress answered with a mammoth road construction bill. It established an important infrastructure that will pay off for our country for generations to come. There was an understanding that the country's roadway infrastructure was in disrepair.

The agricultural infrastructure of the United States is just as vital, and it is fraying. It is time for New Mexicans involved in agriculture at every level and in all industry subsectors to agree that the need for a solid base in agricultural research and technology transfer will be important for us all for generations to come.

With such resolve, we can approach the state legislature as we enter the new century to put agriculture on a solid foundation with funding-not for this project or that project-but funding for the fundamentals that will support all of agriculture from the High Plains to the mountains to the deserts of New Mexico.

Our strength in agriculture is through unity behind an effort to redevelop our agricultural research and development infrastructure.