PARMA, Idaho — The air handling and filtration system is a key feature of the new Idaho Center for Plant and Soil Health because it helps to keep conditions ideal for research.

“It’s neat, and cutting-edge,” Mike Kiester, University of Idaho Parma Research and Extension Center operations manager, told Capital Press.

Installing and fine-tuning the air handling and filtration system was a key to completing the building, he said. He managed the building’s construction at UI Parma, where a grand opening was held Feb. 20.

The system creates positive pressure that maintains a “clean room” environment ideal for tissue cultures, nematologist Saad Hafez said.

In the new building’s nematology lab, “our hope is for more samples and faster handling,” he said.

In addition to nematology, the 9,600-square-foot Center for Plant and Soil Health includes pomology, plant pathology, microbiology and hops quality laboratory space as well as space for shared uses, according to UI.

The $12.1 million building was funded by the university, the state and $3 million in donations from agriculture industry stakeholders. It replaces outdated facilities, some more than 50 years old.

The building will benefit agriculture far beyond Canyon County, a seed-production hub that is home to 118 different crops, Michael Parrella, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences dean, said at the grand opening.

The center, a “cutting-edge research laboratory that will pay dividends for generations to come,” he said, will enable UI to attract and retain top faculty and to conduct research of far-reaching importance.

The drive to build it started in 2018. Organizers included a reunited Treasure Valley coalition that nine years earlier helped to keep the Parma R&E Center open despite a recession-driven budget crunch.

Contributions from agricultural businesses and commodity groups were key to keeping the existing facility open in 2009-10, and to starting the successful funding campaign for the new building.

“We’re here. We are not shuttered,” said coalition member Margie Watson of major onion packer J.C. Watson Co. near Parma. She celebrated the new facility “and the vibrant future it represents to the University of Idaho, the Parma area and Idaho agriculture.”

Parma R&E Center efforts are “a testament to working together, innovation “and a shared commitment to growth,” she said.

The design and construction team, state leaders and ag industry contributors kept work going through COVID-19-driven supply-chain problems and other challenges, Parrella said.

Gov. Brad Little commended community and business leaders, the legislature and UI for their commitment to the Parma center over the years. The new facility represents adaptation to inevitable change while providing farm families and ag businesses “the tools they need to be survivors, and actually thrive,” he said.