OARS funding Agriculture

This Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) seeks opportunities to co-create, co-design, co-invest, and collaborate in the research, development, piloting, testing, and scaling of innovative, practical and cost-effective activities in the general area of Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA). The focus of this BAA is to identify innovative thinking, best practices and promising programs that will provide cost effective and practical options to respond to climate and weather related impacts on small holder farmer-based food and agriculture systems in low income countries. In many cases, such options and practices may provide a "double or triple win" by also reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving agriculture income and productivity. Any opportunities for funding and partnering will be issued as Addenda to this BAA. In Addendum Number 01 to the Climate Smart Agriculture BAA, USAID seeks knowledge and solutions to the current problem of limited levels of private sector engagement and investment in Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) practices and technologies. The main focus of this work is to help smallholder-based food and agriculture systems in low-income countries adapt to climate and weather change impacts. The countries supported by the USG Feed the Future Initiative are the primary geographic focus. Collaboration opportunities that align with USAID's focus value chains in the Feed the Future countries are particularly encouraged. More information on the Feed the Future Initiative and FTF focus and aligned countries can be found at www.feedthefuture.org.

Help create a sustainable, competitive, and healthy US food system. Use USDA data to create working, interactive applications to get farmers the information they need - and help feed America. What to Create: Submit a working, interactive application that integrates one or more of the required USDA datasets.  Static data visualizations will not be eligible. Applications must include interactive functionality (e.g. the user can change parameters to update the visualization and/or result). Eligible Platforms: Smartphone or tablet (iOS, Android, Blackberry, Kindle, Windows 8 Mobile) Web (mobile or desktop) Desktop (Windows PC, Mac Desktop) Software running on other publicly available hardware (including, but not exclusive to, wearable technology, open source hardware, etc.) Supplemental Material: You must submit a demo video (hosted on YouTube, Vimeo, or Youku) that walks through the main functionality of the application via screencast or video. You must also submit a text description and at least one image/screenshot of your working application. Testing: You must make your app available for testing by providing a link to access your installation file, an uploaded installation file, a beta distribution build, etc. See full testing access options. New & Existing Solutions: Apps may be newly created or pre-existing. If the submitted app existed prior to the competition's submission start date, it must have been updated to integrate the required USDA data during the submission period.

The total BCAP program funding for FY 2016 is authorized at $25 million, which includes costs for BCAP matching payments which can be from 10% to 50% of the annual appropriated budget, IT, counsel, and technical assistance. Authorization and FULL appropriation would limit project area funding to $22.5 million. Awards, the selection of a project area, are provided in the form of direct annual rental payments and establishment payment reimbursements for up to 50% of the establishment costs for perennial crops, and capped at $500/acre or $750/acre if a socially disadvantaged farmer. Award ceiling and floor are only suggested amounts for selection priority. The BCAP was re-authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill. Authorization expires September 30, 2018. All contracts to producers, regardless the length of the approved application, are obligated from current year funds, i.e. from FY 2016 appropriations,and payments will be executed according to the terms of the producer applications. Approved producer applications maybe up to 5 years for herbaceous crops and may be up to 15 years for woody crops.

The USAID/Ghana Democracy Rights and Governance (DRG) and Economic Growth Offices' new cross sectoral governance project seeks to accelerate governance improvements and manage conflict in support of enhanced agricultural development in Ghana's Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions. The purpose of the activity is to increase the capacity of Ghana's decentralized agricultural structures at the regional and district levels, improve accountability and performance efficiency of these decentralized agricultural structures, build community consensus, and strengthen civil society's demand for better service delivery in agriculture in partnership with the private sector.

We seek applications from independent investigators who can devote a substantial portion of time to this effort. While we will not require a minimum Principal Investigator (PI) effort, we expect the PI to commit to a level of effort that reflects a leading role in the project. We encourage applications from researchers who are not currently working on autism, but who have expertise that could be brought to bear on this complex disorder. We will also accept collaborative grants involving multiple investigators.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) invites applications for Centers for Agricultural Safety and Health (Ag Centers). Ag Centers are expected to conduct high quality research and help translate scientific discoveries into practical applications to improve worker safety and health in the areas of agriculture, forestry, and fishing. 

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research (OBER), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), hereby announce their interest in receiving applications for genomics- based research that will lead to the improved use of biomass and plant feedstocks for the production of fuels such as ethanol or renewable chemical feedstocks.

The Rural Utilities Service (RUS), an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), announces the availability of up to $10 million in competitive grants to assist communities with extremely high energy costs. The grant funds may be used to acquire, construct, or improve energy generation, transmission, or distribution facilities serving communities where average annual residential expenditure for home energy exceeding 275 percent of the national average. Eligible projects also include on-grid and off-grid renewable energy projects and implementation of energy efficiency, and energy conservation projects for eligible communities.

The purpose of the BRAG program is to support the generation of new information that will assist Federal regulatory agencies in making science-based decisions about the effects of introducing into the environment genetically engineered organisms (GE), including plants, microorganisms (including fungi, bacteria, and viruses), arthropods, fish, birds, mammals and other animals excluding humans.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is soliciting proposals from eligible applicants to provide support for training and technical assistance activities to build the capacity of state and tribal officials and nongovernmental stakeholders in the Clean Water Act (CWA) Sections 303(d), 305(b), TMDL Programs, the Nonpoint Source (CWA Section 319) Program, and Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia related activities. 

The purpose of the SCRI program is to address the critical needs of the specialty crop industry by awarding grants to support research and extension that address key challenges of national, regional, and multi-state importance in sustaining all components of food and agriculture, including conventional and organic food production systems. Projects must address at least one of five focus areas: Research in plant breeding, genetics, genomics, and other methods to improve crop characteristics; Efforts to identify and address threats from pests and diseases, including threats to specialty crop pollinators; Efforts to improve production efficiency, handling and processing, productivity, and profitability over the long term (including specialty crop policy and marketing); new innovations and technology, including improved mechanization and technologies that delay or inhibit ripening; and methods to prevent, detect, monitor, control, and respond to potential food safety hazards in the production efficiency, handling and processing of specialty crops.

Beginning farmer education for adult and young audiences in the United States can be generally traced back to the advent of the 1862 and the 1890 Morrill Land Grant Acts. But for the first time, the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (Pub .L. No. 110-234, Section 7410), appropriated $75 million for FY 2009 to FY 2012 to develop and offer education, training, outreach and mentoring programs to enhance the sustainability of the next generation of farmers. The Agriculture Act of 2014 provided an additional $20 million per year for 2014 through 2018.

The purpose of the SCRI program is to address the critical needs of the specialty crop industry by awarding grants to support research and extension that address key challenges of national, regional, and multi-state importance in sustaining all components of food and agriculture, including conventional and organic food production systems.

As part of our mission supporting farmers and ranchers, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) provides extensive education and outreach for producers. This typically involves public meetings, mailings, news releases, and interactions with individual producers seeking additional information or to enroll in a program. However, there remains a need for additional outreach and education that could benefit potential participants in FSA's portfolio of programs. 

This RFA seeks proposals to further support and expand FSA's existing outreach and education efforts. The additional outreach and education could, for example, be public meetings, training sessions, and/or workshops for producers including new and beginning farmers, veterans, underserved communities, and/or established producers

The Ag/NRM Project is the main vehicle within the USAID/Ghana Feed the Future strategy to address issues of environment and natural resource management and will focus on increasing rural wealth, nutrition and climate change adaptation

 The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) announces the availability of approximately $63 million in grant funds to solely enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops. Specialty crops are defined as fruits and vegetables, dried fruit, tree nuts, horticulture and nursery crops (including floriculture). State departments of agriculture interested in obtaining grant program funds are invited to submit applications to AMS. State departments of agriculture, meaning agencies, commissions, or departments of a State government responsible for agriculture within the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands are eligible to apply. Please contact your local State department of agriculture if you are not eligible to apply. State departments of agriculture are encouraged to conduct outreach regarding the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program - Farm Bill to specialty crop stakeholders, socially disadvantaged, and beginning farmers and conduct a competitive grant proposal process. State department of agriculture contacts and state requests for proposals can be found at www.ams.usda.gov/scbgp. Applications from State departments of agriculture must be submitted by July 8, 2015.

This AFRI Challenge Area focuses on the priority to mitigate and adapt to climate variability and change. It supports activities that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase carbon sequestration in agricultural and forest production systems, and prepare the nation's agriculture and forests to adapt to variable climates. The long-term outcome for this program is to reduce the use of energy, nitrogen fertilizer, and water by ten percent and increase carbon sequestration by fifteen percent through resilient agriculture and forest production systems. In order to achieve this outcome, this program will support multi-function Integrated Research, Education, and/or Extension Projects and Food and Agricultural Science Enhancement (FASE) Grants applications that address one of the Program Area Priorities (see Climate Variability and Change RFA for details).

This AFRI Challenge Area promotes and enhances the scientific discipline of food safety, with an overall aim of protecting consumers from microbial and chemical contaminants that may occur during all stages of the food chain, from production to consumption. This requires an understanding of the interdependencies of human, animal, and ecosystem health as it pertains to foodborne pathogens. The long-term outcome for this program is to reduce foodborne illnesses and deaths by improving the safety of the food supply, which will result in reduced impacts on public health and on our economy. In order to achieve this outcome, this program will support single-function Research Projects and multi-function Integrated Research, Education, and/or Extension Projects, and Food and Agricultural Science Enhancement (FASE) Grants that address one of the Program Area Priorities (see Food Safety RFA for details).

With this request for applications, USAID seeks innovative applications for a Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems.