The Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) Critical Agricultural Research and Extension (CARE) program is designed to address urgent challenges affecting the nation’s food system by promoting partnerships among researchers, extension experts and practitioners in food and ag enterprises. Ideally, efforts in an AFRI CARE grant will lead to practices or solutions that can be used in the field.
The AFRI CARE program is funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). The 2022 AFRI CARE available funding is increasing to $7 million, which is $2 million higher than last year.
The AFRI CARE grant funds integrated (research + extension) projects that meet any of the six Farm Bill priorities:
- Plant health and production and plant products;
- Animal health and production and animal products;
- Food safety, nutrition, and health;
- Bioenergy, natural resources, and environment;
- Agriculture systems and technology; or
- Agriculture economics and rural communities.
Projects may request up to $300,000, which can be spread over 1 to 3 years. The next submission deadline is September 15, 2022. More details are available on the NIFA website and in the AFRI RFA.
The AFRI CARE funding opportunity was established in 2013.