The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is requesting written stakeholder input on the Urban, Indoor and other Emerging Agricultural Production Research, Education and Extension Initiative. The purpose of this Notice is to assist NIFA in developing the fiscal year 2020 Request for Applications for the Urban, Indoor and other Emerging Agricultural Production Research, Education and Extension Initiative.
The Western Center for Metropolitan Extension and Research (WCMER), in conjunction with our partners, will send a coordinated response to NIFA’s request, incorporating input from WCMER member institutions and their local stakeholders, to support NIFA’s goal for developing FY 2020 RFA for the program.
To gather broad sector input for the response, WCMER collected input through:
- an on-line survey and
- hosting four on-line listening sessions
How we will use this information:
Input from the listening sessions and survey responses has been aggregated and summarized by WCMER for the purpose of providing comments to NIFA; no personally identifying information was included.
Background information: NIFA invests in Urban Agriculture research and education through its Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Development Program, AFRI Foundational Knowledge of Agriculture Production Systems, Specialty Crop Research Initiative, AFRI Small and Medium Sized Farms, Community Food Projects, and the Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative. Information on these programs and how they help address urban, indoor and emerging agricultural production priorities can be found in NIFA’s website through the following address: https://nifa.usda.gov/program/uie-ag.
WCMER developed an overview of projects funded through these NIFA programs and is available for download here
Listening Sessions: WCMER member institution Michigan State University’s National Charrette Institute designed and provided facilitation for the on-line listening sessions. The 4 listening sessions were conducted May 28-29, 2020.
Click to review results and summary from listening sessions & survey
Click to review the results from WCMER member university states
CONTACT
For more information on the Western Center NIFA listening sessions, please contact:
Brad Gaolach Ph. D.
Director | Western Center for Metropolitan Extension & Research
Phone: (425) 405-1734