The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), through one of their agencies, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) provides financial support for researches, education, and programs that benefits the food and agricultural sciences by giving Federal government grants.
USDA NIFA Grants Field Priorities
Needless to say, the USDA NIFA Grants priority goes to food nutrition. However, there are other priorities, which include health and economics and community development. The National Institue of Food and Agriculture award goals is to improve the impact of food, agricultural and natural resource sciences and to grow support for agricultural education, research, and extension programs. Below are the list of emphasis area available for grant opportunities:
- Agricultural and Food Biosecurity
- Agricultural System
- Animals and Animal’s Product
- Biotechnology and Genomics
- Economics and Commerce
- Education
- Environment and Natural Resources
- Families, Youth and Communities
- Food, Nutrition and Health
- International
- Pests Management
- Plants and Plant Products
- Technology and Engineering
USDA NIFA Foundational Grants
The federal institute offers various grant opportunities, and each of the grant opportunities has their own deadline and subject. For example, the currently available grant opportunities are related to biomedicine research using domestic species, citrus disease research and extension, agriculture and food research initiative (AFRI), higher education multicultural scholars program (MSP), and the National Need Graduate and Postgraduate Fellowship program. There are many other grant types, but by the time this article is written, the deadline have passed so you can’t really apply for this grant in this year.
Here are some of the closed USDA NIFA Grants that will be available again for public next year:
- Affordable Care Act
- Alfalfa and Forage Research Program
- Biodiesel Fuel Education
- Biomass Research and Biobased Products
- Biotechnlogy Risk Assessment
- Aquaculture research
- etc
Visit our reference link below this post to learn more about these grants and their requirements. Each of the grant page will inform you the eligibility information, estimated total program funding, range of awards, opening and closing date for the grant application, contact person, cost sharing requirements, and most importantly, the online Request For Application (RFA) and the application forms. Click on the RFA link and the site will explain the evaluation criteria for the USDA NIFA Grants, and the instructions you must follow to submit the proper application
Upcoming USDA NIFA Grants
Here are some available upcoming grants from USDA NIFA you can apply:
Agriculture Risk Management Education Partnerships Competitive Grants Program
The goal of ARME grant is to provide education for the qualified agricultural producers related to the risk management activities. Those activities are features, agricultural trade options, cash forward contracting, marketing plans and strategies, and others. Besides, the program is only for beginning ranchers and farmers, legal immigrant ranchers or farmers who are struggling to become a legal established producer in the US, socially disadvantaged ranchers and farmers, and ranchers or farmers who are preparing to retire.
From this program, it will bring the existing knowledge to bear on the risk management problems experienced by the agricultural producers. Also, the main goal of ARME program is to offer the U.S. agricultural producers along with their families as appropriate, with the help of skills, knowledge, and tools to create better risk management decisions. So, they can enhance their profitability from their operations.
The closing date of this program is Monday, January 15, 2024. Here are more details about this grant.
Capacity Building Grants for Non-Land-Grant Colleges for Agriculture Program
NLGCA institutions can use the funds to support educational, research, and also outreach activities to address some concerns of regional, state, local, and national interest. Their fund is also can be used to dissemminate information about agriculture, and renewable resources.
To apply for this grant, then your institution must have a certificate as the evidence of a Non-land Grant College of Agriculture. This offer will end on Tuesday, January 16, 2024. For further information, check here.
Farm Business Management and Benchmarking Competitive Grants Program
FBMB Competitive Grant Program is the next choice if you are looking for help to improve the farm management knowledge and skills of the agricultural producers. This program is very important that you can learn how to maintain and expand a national farm financial management and to get support for better farm management.
The closing date of this grant is Wednesday, February 7, 2024. Here are more information about the grant.
Crop Protection and Pest Management
The goal of the grant program is to answer the high priority problems related to pests and the management by using IPM approaches at the regional, state, and national levels. Besides, the CPPM program helps projects that can ensure food security and to answer effectively other big societal pest management problems with the presence of comprehensive IPM strategies that are ecologically and economically viable and safe for our health.
This CPPM Program helps IPM problems for the existing priority pest with the new technologies. The result of CPPM program is very effective, eco-friendly, and affordable solution to maintain the agricultural productivity without sacrificing the human health.
The closing date to apply for this grant is Thursday, February 15, 2024. Click here to get more information about this grant.
Actually, there are some more upcoming grants yo can find from USDA NIFA. Use the link here if you want to explore some more options of the available grants.
Summary
In short, the RFA will guide you to complete your application, and then you will be guided to grants.gov to submit the completed USDA NIFA Grants application.
In general, the USDA NIFA grant is a great opportunity for people who are looking to fund their research. By April this year, the USDA have invested almost $24 million for 35 research projects that focuses on improving food safety trough microbial and chemical contamination control research in various foods.
For more information and questions, you can contact the USDA NIFA Grants by sending an email to electronic@nifa.usda.gov or make a call to 202-401-5048. You can call the USDA NIFA office during working hours (7:00 am to 5:00 pm ET).
References:
- Grants. http://www.csrees.usda.gov/fo/funding.cfm#
- USDA-NIFA Awards $24 Million in Food Safety Research Grants. foodsafetymagazine.com/news/usda-nifa-awards-24-million-in-food-safety-research-grants/
- Grant Application Information. csrees.usda.gov/funding/application_info.html
- Images: dairygrazingapprenticeship.org, riverglenfarm.ca
