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The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) awarded $16.5 million in grants to support research into methods for boosting agriculture productivity and ensuring food security in the face of pests, diseases and a changing climate. In addition, USDA announced that it is seeking applications for the next round of projects, which will focus on pollinator health and plant and animal phenomics. The grants are made available through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), administered by USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).
The awards and available funding announced fall into the AFRI Food Security Challenge Area, which funds projects that increase agricultural productivity and the availability and accessibility of safe, nutritious food. Fiscal year 2015 projects receiving support today focus on agriculture production systems, breeding and genomics of crops and livestock, and a national strategy for sustainable crop and livestock production. Since 2010, NIFA has awarded more than $219 million to the AFRI Food Security Challenge Area.
Funded projects include North Dakota State University research to improve existing cropping systems through innovative seeding and nutrient management of cover crops. Purdue University will create a new open source framework that can help identify combinations of policies to improve the environment while ensuring food security. Information on all of these FY15 projects can be found on the NIFA website.
Fiscal year 2016 food security project proposals should emphasize pollinator health as well as breeding and phenomics of food crops and animals. Applications are due July 7, 2016 for a total of $16.8 million in available funding. For the first time, grant awards will be equally co-funded by eligible national and state commodity boards, as authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill. See the request for applications for more information.
President Obama's 2017 budget request proposes to fully fund the AFRI program, doubling the amount that was available in 2016 to $700 million. Since its creation, AFRI has been funded at less than half the levels established in the 2008 Farm Bill, and USDA has only been able to fund one out of 10 research proposals presented, leaving thousands of innovative research proposals unfunded.
Tuesday May 3, 2016/ USDA/ United States.
http://www.usda.gov
