FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM)- The Tyson Family and Tyson Foods, Inc. announced Monday (March 2) that they will be donating $5 million to the construction of a high-tech agricultural research building at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.
The donation from Tyson to the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture will go towards financing the new $16.3 million Don Tyson Center for Agricultural Sciences, according to a media release from Tyson. The construction of the 60,000 square-foot building on property in northern Fayetteville off of Garland Avenue is scheduled to being later this year, the release states.
The research facility will feature high-tech laboratories that will advance plant and animal sustainability, along with water quality research, according to the release.
“This gift and this facility will advance Arkansas Agriculture into the distant future and help our state compete in the very competitive global world of agriculture research for many generations to come,” said Mark Cochran, the Division’s Vice President for Agriculture.
This is the largest individual gift Tyson Foods has ever given to a University of Arkansas System division or campus, the release states.
The University of Arkansas System Board of Trustees approved the Agriculture Division’s request for the new facility in September 2014.
