Parma celebrates 100 years of ag research

By Sean Ellis

Idaho Farm Bureau Federation

PARMA – In 2009, the University of Idaho’s Parma Research and Extension Center was slated for closure and was, on paper, basically closed at one point.

A group of farmers and others who couldn’t imagine life without the agricultural research station formed a coalition and lobbied to keep it open.

Seventeen years later, the center is thriving. University officials and ag industry stakeholders celebrated its 100^th anniversary June 12.

In 2024, the university celebrated a $12 million revitalization of the Parma research center. That celebration marked the opening of a cutting-edge facility that houses the laboratory space for research in nematology, pomology, plant pathology, microbiology and hops.

Known as the Idaho Center for Plant and Soil Health, that modern 9,600-square-foot building replaced antiquated facilities that were more than 50 years old in some cases.

The 100^th anniversary celebration included lunch, a featured program, tours and educational activities, insect gallery displays, research presentations and posters, stakeholder and industry booths and a historical photo display.

The research center was actually established in 1925, but the university chose to celebrate its 100^th year in 2026 to coincide with the 125^th anniversary of the university’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS).

During the 100-year celebration, guest speakers reminded people that it was the agricultural industry itself that helped the Parma center pull a phoenix and rise from the ashes.

In 2009, after CALS lost nearly $5 million in state funding for research efforts during the recession, the Parma center was slated for closure.

Farmers and other stakeholders formed a group called Treasure Valley Agricultural Coalition to save it. The group lobbied lawmakers and the governor on its behalf.

The group’s recommendation “led to a whole bunch of activity that saved the station,” Mike Thornton, the former Parma center superintendent, told Idaho Farm Bureau Federation.

“It was a dark time in some ways,” he added, “but the outcome was better than anybody would have expected. It’s really been a good story. It was amazing, from the fact that you got to see how much the industry valued this place and the length they were willing to go to keep it open.”

TVAC members initially met in a room at the center that had no heat or water. They also put their own dollars toward bricks and mortar stuff, like keeping the lights on until a solution was found.

TVAC members provided $149,000 to the station over a three-year period beginning in 2010.

Eventually, a three-way partnership between the state, university and ag industry ended up saving the research center.

Members of TVAC were in 2014 presented with the prestigious Dean’s Award for their role in helping save the Parma center and for their long-term support of CALS.

“This Parma Research and Extension Center continues to deliver the University of Idaho’s land-grant mission by conducting world-class research and disseminating that knowledge and support to our Idaho producers,” CALS Dean Leslie Edgar said during the 100-year celebration.

“At its core,” she added, “this Parma R&E Center continues to focus on and ensure that we are meeting the agricultural needs of this state. This center has a rich history of providing critical information to growers across different cropping systems….”

Edgar thanked all the people who continue to support Parma and CALS itself.

“We’re grateful for everyone who has advocated and continues to advocate not only for this research and Extension center, but for the work that we do as your land-grant university across this great state of Idaho,” she said. “Together, we are able to transform the future of agricultural research in Idaho and beyond.”

The 200-acre research center conducts research on many of the crops grown in the region, and Idaho, including beans, onions and other vegetables, hops, mint, tree fruit, wine and table grapes, cereals and seed crops.

The station has entomology, soils, horticulture, crop management, pomology, viticulture, nematology, and plant pathology programs.

Lt. Gov. Scott Bedke, a rancher and one of the speakers during the June 12 celebration, remembered hearing about the discussions to shutter the research center.

“In my experience, I couldn’t even imagine closing these Extension services because they’ve been so valuable to me and mine,” he said. “The research that you do here is very integral and absolutely cutting edge and it’s important for the industry that we love.”

He reminded people that “the most important industry in the state of Idaho is still agriculture and food processing” and said tax dollars are well invested in the university’s various agricultural research centers.

The beginnings of the Parma research center stem from growers in the community asking for help in dealing with a serious infestation of alfalfa weevil. P

“It was threatening their crops and their livelihoods,” said current Parma Station Director Chris Caron. “So farmers did what farmers do: They fought back and they pushed to find a solution.”

“From day one,” he added, “this place was put here to serve this agricultural community and it’s the growers, both big and small, and the agricultural industry as a whole, that give this station its purpose.”