The U.S. Department of Agriculture has made $130 million available for research, education, and extension projects to support sustainable, productive and economically viable plant and animal production systems, including organic production.  Funding comes through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Foundational Program and the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).

“Investing in agricultural research ensures that our farmers and ranchers have innovative, safe and sustainable management practices to meet the food needs of the rising world population,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “In addition, studies have shown that every dollar invested in agricultural research now returns over $20 to our economy.”

This round of funding is offered through the AFRI Foundational Program, which funds projects that continue building a foundation of knowledge in fundamental and applied food and agricultural sciences. The Foundational Program addresses six priority areas of the 2014 Farm Bill, with various amounts of funding allocated to each priority area. Funding for 2016 is allocated as follows plant health and production and plant products, $33 million; animal health and production and animal products, $31 million; food safety, nutrition and health, $19 million; bioenergy, natural resources and environment, $14 million; agriculture systems and technology, $11 million; and agriculture economics and rural communities, $17 million.

This request for application (RFA) also includes research topics proposed to be funded equally by eligible national and state commodity boards and NIFA, as authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill. Commodity board priority topics include those proposed for the plant breeding for agricultural production program area, improving the food safety program area, as well as $3 million for the Critical Agriculture Research and Extension (CARE) program area.

Additionally, $2 million in funding is available for the Exploratory Research Program (ERP) for those working to address critical and emerging issue. NIFA is also piloting a “Distributed Peer Review” process to improve peer review efficiencies.

Application submission deadlines vary by program.