Far-reaching federal budget cuts have put a longstanding California grape breeding program in jeopardy after key members of the research team were among the thousands fired in the Trump Administration’s effort to downsize government.

For more than a century, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Research Service in Fresno County has produced some of the most popular table grape varieties in the nation, including the first red seedless grape in 1973. And it has also been on the forefront of developing raisin grape varieties that can be dried on the vine and mechanically harvested.

Located in Parlier on a 130-acre plot of land, the San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center is home to scientists working on methods to combat crop diseases and pests, creating new fruit and nut varieties, and water management.

The center also houses the National Arid Land Plant Genetic Resource Unit that serves as a regeneration site for the National Plant Germplasm System. Germplasm is a genetic resource such as seeds, tissues and DNA sequences that are maintained for the purpose of animal and plant breeding.

But the four-person team of researchers and scientists that has supported the multi-billion-dollar grape industry in the San Joaquin Valley has been gutted in the name of government efficiency.

It is unclear how many USDA employees have been let go nationwide since the flood of layoffs began Feb. 13. According to a New York Times database, at least 20,000 employees have been fired from dozens of federal departments and agencies.

Many of those laid-off workers were probationary employees, or those with less than two years of employment and in other cases less than three.

How many USDA workers were fired?

At the ARS center in Parlier, one of those fired workers, who asked not to be identified, estimated that slightly more than a dozen scientists, post-doctoral researchers and technicians were laid off throughout the center.

He had been in his position about eight months and was excited about his work screening grape species for a resistance to vine mealy bug, one of the industry’s most destructive pests. The fired worker was crushed when he got his layoff notice.

“I was terminated on the grounds my performance was the issue,” the former USDA employee said. “But my reviews say the exact opposite of that. It is really frustrating.”

The former worker and his spouse were liking Fresno more and more, and were making plans for their future, including buying a home and starting a family.

“It was a real incredible experience at ARS,” he said. “I was hoping to become a plant breeder and to develop into a career scientist.”

Federal facility in Parlier pioneered grape varieties

Grape industry leaders were shocked at the abrupt firings.

“It was upsetting because of the work that has been done over a 40-plus year relationship,” said Ian LeMay, president of the California Table Grape Commission in Fresno. “So to lose that with the snap of a finger was jarring.”

LeMay and others in agriculture rallied around the laid-off scientists and were able to persuade USDA officials to rehire the team’s leader, Dr. Summaira Riaz.

Unfortunately, the three hand-picked people on her team were not rehired.

Craig Ledbetter, a retired geneticist formerly with the USDA’s research center in Parlier, said the loss of highly trained scientists and researchers will pose a serious delay in the development of new plant varieties.

“This is a critical time with bloom beginning to happen,” he said. “What will happen to the plant material when the principal investigators are gone?”

In his 35 years at ARS, Ledbetter is credited with developing new varieties of apricots, table grapes and a self-pollinating variety of almond.

He said he’s especially frustrated because the scientist hired to fill his position may also have been let go. The position had been open for three years.

Said Ledbetter: “She was supposed to be the next generation of this program and take it to the next level.”