Jan. 26—The Maxatawny Township-based nonprofit Rodale Institute has received a $500,000 grant through a state effort to support research important to growing Pennsylvania’s agriculture industry.

The state funding for Rodale will be put toward the institute’s groundbreaking research and training programs in organic and regenerative agriculture, state officials said.

In a release Friday, Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding announced the Rodale grant, which was among more than $2.2 million in funding for research proposals on issues critical to sustaining and growing Pennsylvania’s $132.5 billion agriculture industry, he said.

Funded projects will address complex challenges ranging from reducing impacts of climate change and measuring soil and water conservation, to tackling emerging animal care issues, and developing plant-based solutions to reduce threats to human health, he said.

“Investing in research is the first critical step toward solving today’s most costly and complex challenges, and developing innovative solutions to tomorrow’s challenges,” he said.

“Pennsylvania-based research institutions are on the cutting edge of exciting developments in organic and regenerative agriculture, and in imagining the technology we need to continue to be a national and world agriculture leader,” he said.

Research grants currently funded through the ag department are developing novel solutions to controlling animal and plant diseases and pests, increasing regenerative and organic farming methods that enrich and sustain our soil and water resources, advancing human and animal medicine, applying emerging technology in food safety, and protecting pollinators that are crucial to the food supply, he said.