1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Advancing Automation Research and Development in Agriculture Act . 2. Mechanization and automation for specialty crops The Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998 ( 7 U.S.C. 7601 et seq. ) is amended by inserting at the end the following: 412A. Mechanization and automation for specialty crops (a) Establishment The Secretary shall establish within the Department a stand-alone competitive research and extension grant program to increase the competitiveness of specialty crops in the United States through the advancement and acceleration of the mechanization and automation, including— (1) Projects that create or improve cost-effective technologies to reduce a specialty crop grower’s manual labor requirements and increase the efficiency of crop production, resource management, harvesting, processing, post-harvest technologies, and packaging through mechanization, automation, and other innovations and technologies. (2) Projects that increase adoption of mechanization and automation technologies by: (A) Emphasizing adoption drivers that could include but are not limited to connectivity, autonomy, reliability, durability, in-field validation, and cost-effectiveness. (B) Investing and developing human capital to increase the specialty crop sector’s capacity to work with new technologies, and to manage a more tech-focused farm workforce. (3) Projects that accelerate automation and mechanization through prototype development, in-field trial testing, ongoing industry engagement, and rapid commercialization. (b) Eligible entities The Secretary may carry out the section through eligible entities described in subsection (c). (c) Eligible entities described Eligible entities described in this subsection are— (1) Federal agencies; (2) national laboratories; (3) colleges or universities; (4) research institutions or organizations; (5) private organizations or corporations; (6) State agricultural experiment stations; (7) individuals