Agriculture

  The 110th Congress has passed an omnibus farm bill (P.L. 110-234) that will authorize and direct the implementation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) major programs across the spectrum of its mission areas through FY2012. The enacted bill reorganizes the Department's research, extension, and economics mission area, which currently comprises four agencies that separately administer intramural and extramural programs supporting agricultural research and development (R&D).   

    The research title of P.L. 110-234 (Title VII) classifies all current research, extension, and education programs into two groups -- capacity programs and competitive programs -- based upon the way in which their funding is distributed to recipients. Title VII creates an umbrella coordinating entity known as the Research, Extension, and Education Office (REEO) in Office of the Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics, and designates the Under Secretary as the Chief Scientist of USDA.

     The REEO will coordinate and plan both capacity and competitive programs, as well as USDA-administered intramural (Agricultural Research Service (ARS)) and extramural programs. Extramural programs (both capacity and competitive), currently administered by the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES)), will be transferred to a new National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA), and CSREES will cease to exist on October 1, 2009.Within the new NIFA, the existing National Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program (NRI) will be expanded into an Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI). It will incorporate the purposes of the former Initiative for Future Agriculture and Food Systems (IFAFS), whose authority the new farm bill repeals. 

    The House and Senate versions of the farm bill would have provided $865 million and $160 million, respectively, in mandatory funding for certain research programs over the five-year life of the bill. The enacted bill provides a total of $333 million in mandatory funds for (1) a new specialty crop research initiative ($230 million); (2) research on fresh produce food safety ($25 million); and (3) organic agriculture research ($78 million).

    The enacted farm bill research title includes major initiatives to provide capacity-building support to Hispanic-serving agricultural colleges and to make them eligible to receive funding through a wider range of grant programs.