During the past decade (2008-2017), approximately 233,590 acres were grown by farmers using UT AgResearch soybean varieties developed by our program. By estimating each year’s seed sales x that year’s yield x that year’s soybean commodity price, the impact of your investment in our new variety development efforts was >$95 million in revenue directly to producers.
Ag economists estimate that soybean commodity production results in about a 9-fold increase in revenue due to soybean barge and train shipment, silo and container storage, oil crushing and protein meal extraction plants and biodiesel processing plants. Thus the $95 million in revenue generated by seed sales and productive performance of our varieties translates to $855 million in realized economic impact for the past decade. Investment in Tennessee Soybean Breeding & Genetics brings strong returns on the dollar.