- Awarded almost $2.2 billion in grant funds in Fiscal Year 2022.
- Supported USDA’s Strategic Goals
- Investing in climate resilience and U.S. agriculture’s ability to be part of the climate solution.
- Prioritizing consistent access to safe, nutritious food for all Americans.
- Developing more and better markets for U.S. agricultural producers.
- Building stronger rural economies.
Ensuring underserved groups can more fully access and participate in USDA programs and services
- Managed new funds totaling almost one-third of the NIFA budget.
- Funding sources
- American Rescue Plan Act
- Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
- Inflation Reduction Act
- Implemented Bioproduct Pilot Program to support research studying the benefits of using materials derived from covered agricultural commodities to manufacture construction and consumer products. Increasing production, distribution and sale of biobased products will spur growth in rural economies while reducing the risks of bringing biobased products to the market. Additionally, it will help foster a circular economy where resources can be extracted, consumed and reused in a sustainable manner.
- Added a new program area priority to the AFRI Foundational and Applied Science Request for Applications (RFA) to spur development and implementation of climate-smart agricultural or forestry practices that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create positive economic, environmental and social impacts.
- Released an updated Climate Adaptation and Resilience Plan, outlining how NIFA will combat climate change and its threat to U.S. food and agriculture. Implementation is currently underway and includes program changes and attention to environmental justice.
- Achieved a significant milestone in the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. Extramural research expenditures for research and development activities reached $1 billion, mandating the creation of a new parallel effort, the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program. Both SBIR and STTR programs are focused on developing innovative solutions to pressing problems that can then be commercialized as new products and services or as improvements to existing ones.
- Strengthened the infrastructure and shored up the nation’s food supply chain – especially in meat and poultry production and processing via American Rescue Plan Meat & Poultry Agriculture Workforce Training program. These investments will enhance equity and capacity across the food supply chain by supporting meat and poultry research, education and training at the local level. Workforce training will increase the resiliency and competitiveness of local and regional supply chains and support the industry’s urgent need for highly skilled talent to meet labor demands across the country.
- Provided $5 million for Extension Risk Management Education and Sustainable Agriculture Research Education. These programs will support development of meat and poultry processing training and educational materials for place-based needs, particularly relevant to small- or medium-sized farmers and ranchers.
- Offered competitive funding to support meat and poultry processing workforce development at community colleges through the AFRI Education & Workforce Development RFA.
- Established funding for Centers of Excellence at 1890 Land-grant Universities and educational programs at 1994 Land-grant Colleges, Alaska Native and Hawaiian Native Institutions, Resident and Insular Areas, and Hispanic-serving Institutions to develop or enhance existing meat and poultry processing training programs. This funding is critical to our and our partners’ efforts to prepare students for careers in the food, agriculture and natural resources sciences.
- Assisted more than 1,400 students, worked with 66 new technologies, and conducted 86 training workshops through these centers.
- Mobilized an agency-wide NIFA Nutrition Security Team that includes more than 80 staff. This team coordinates and promotes NIFA’s more than $200 million investments in research, education, Extension, and innovation to advance USDA’s goal to tackle food and nutrition insecurity.
- Within AFRI
- Added nutrition to the AFRI Extension, Education, and USDA Climate Hubs Partnership (A1721).
- Improved integration of nutrition security into the AFRI Sustainable Agricultural Systems (A9201) and ensuring a better dissemination of this RFA among key climate and nutrition communities.
- Assisted with the integration of nutrition security into the AFRI rapid response (A1712) extreme weather events across food and agriculture.
- Reviewed other AFRI priority areas in plant and animal systems to integrate a consistent nutrition security perspective.
- Within AFRI
- Used Outside of AFRI
- Used American Rescue Plan funding to expand the impact of the Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program (GusNIP) to increase consumption of fresh produce and improve health and nutrition in low-resource communities.
- Distributed up to $40 million through GusNIP grants and program enhancements. Participants redeemed more than $20 million in nutrition incentives and reported increased fruit and vegetable intake and improvements in food security.
- Provided education and training for underserved communities through NIFA’s Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP). EFNEP is the nation’s first nutrition education program for low-income populations and remains at the forefront of nutrition education efforts to reduce nutrition insecurity of low-income families and youths today.
