This program area priority focuses on the development and/or adoption of new models to assist agricultural (farm, forest, or ranch) landowner/manager decision making with respect to appropriate scale management strategies and technologies to enhance economic efficiency and sustainability, including the viability and competitiveness of small and medium-sized dairy, poultry, livestock, crop, forestry, aquaculture, and other operations.

Program Area Priority: The Foundational Knowledge of Plant Products program supports projects to study the biosynthesis of plant-derived, high-value biomolecules for use in foods, pharmaceuticals, and other products. Projects must focus on agriculturally-important plants, but the choice of plant species must be justified. Molecular, biochemical, synthetic biology, or eco-physiological approaches may be used to determine […]

NIFA requests proposals for integrated projects that help prevent and control chronic disease equitably across the lifecycle by supporting and encouraging culturally relevant, healthy dietary choices through data-driven, flexible, customer-focused approaches.

NIFA requests proposals for basic and applied research that will reduce the risk of intentional or unintentional contamination of foods.

Program Area Priority: The Pollinator Health: Research and Application program supports single-function projects (research, extension or education) with the goal of promoting healthy populations of animal pollinators in agricultural systems where reliance of crops on pollinators for pollination services is increasing and where declines of pollinators is evident. The declining health of pollinator populations poses […]

Program Area Priority: The Physiology of Agricultural Plants program will support projects to improve productivity or other performance factors of agriculturally-important plants (including weeds) using molecular, biochemical, whole-plant, agronomic, or eco-physiological approaches. The genetic basis of important traits identified through these studies are expected to translate into plant varieties with improved yield or product quality, […]

This program area priority focuses on developing biomass systems, and producing biobased products or biomass generated power to enable the bioeconomy, and in a manner, which reduces adverse impacts to the environment.

USDA-NIFA will provide competitive support to improve water science, management and technologies, water conservation and water use efficiency; promote common data exchange formats and access to data for decision-making, improve forecasting and model water related systems, and promote technology adoption and behavior change by producers, land managers, and decision makers.

This program area priority supports rigorous theoretical and empirical efforts to create and examine innovative approaches for advancing economic opportunities for rural entrepreneurs and communities, with an aim to promote rural prosperity and well-being.

Nanoscale science, engineering, and technology embrace opportunities in a wide range of critical challenges facing agriculture and food systems.

Applications are encouraged that advance understanding of environmental justice and use of traditional ecological knowledge (including indigenous traditional knowledge) to create a demographically diverse and representative research community. Stakeholder-informed approaches that can lead to actionable information and transformational changes are also encouraged.

This program area priority calls for research projects that focus on improvement of ecosystem health and output of ecosystem services in managed production systems (croplands, forests, and rangelands) that are currently under stress or at risk from climate change, pests, pathogens, invasive plants, and increased environmental pressures.