The goal of the Food and Agriculture Defense Initiative Extension Disaster Education Network (FADI-EDEN) program is to maximize the resilience of the U.S. food and agriculture sector to biosecurity risks, extreme weather events and disasters, cyber threats, and other shocks.
Funding Priority
The Food and Agriculture Defense Initiative was authorized in section 1484 of National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (NARETPA), 7 U.S.C 3351. Under this authority available to the Secretary, the Secretary shall use funds made available to carry out agricultural research, education, and extension activities for continuation of partnerships with institutions of higher education and other institutions to help form stable, long-term programs to enhance the biosecurity of the U.S. These agreements are issued using NIFA’s authority section 1472 of the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (NARETPA), 7 U.S.C. 3318.
About the Networks
The Food and Agriculture Defense Initiative consists of three networks:
- EDEN: Extension Disaster Education Network
The purpose of the Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN) is to expand the Cooperative Extension System's educational role with a focus on agrosecurity before, during, and after a disaster, using the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) National Response Framework. This framework established an “all-hazards” approach to enhance the ability of the United States to manage domestic incidents. This approach includes homeland security processes for disaster planning, preparing, mitigating, responding, and recovering.
- NPDN: National Plant Diagnostic Network
The purpose of the National Plant Diagnostic Network (NPDN) is to reduce the vulnerability of the United States food and agricultural system to chemical or biological attack. The network coordinates the development, implementation, and enhancement of diverse capabilities for addressing threats to the Nation’s agricultural economy and food supply. To attain these purposes, the overarching goals of the NPDN are to: produce educated and capable first responders (Detection), provide accurate, reliable, and timely diagnostics and surveillance (Diagnosis), and supply useful, real-time data from innovative information and communication systems (Reporting).
- NAHLN: National Animal Health Laboratory Network
The purpose of NAHLN is to provide early detection, rapid response, and appropriate recovery from an adverse animal health event. Activities supporting disease identification and surveillance focus around identification of high-consequence pathogens including those that are transboundary/foreign animal diseases, endemic to the US or newly emerging diseases.
Description of FADI-EDEN
USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) supports the resilience of the U.S. food and agriculture sector to biosecurity risks, extreme weather events and disasters, cyber threats, and other shocks through the Food and Agriculture Defense Initiative Extension Disaster Education Network (FADI-EDEN) funding opportunity . It is necessary to mitigate threats to sustain the overall competitiveness of U.S. agriculture to maintain an abundant food supply for people and livestock, to support the farmers, ranchers and workers who drive the U.S. food and agriculture sector, and to sustain the vitality of rural communities, rural and urban agriculture infrastructure, and agricultural businesses.
Historically, a strength of the FADI-EDEN program has been its ties to the Extension Disaster Education Network which is a national, collaborative network of Extension professionals who are dedicated to improved all-hazards management of domestic disasters and who have expertise in agriculture and natural resources, individual and family health and well-being, positive youth development, and community and economic development. Through the Network, Extension professionals collaborate to respond to incidents that impact the U.S. food and agriculture sector; create and deliver educational resources and experiences aimed at the phases of the disaster management cycle (preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation); develop and/or enhance their skills and expertise; and partner with local, state, regional, and federal organizations and agencies to strengthen collaborations and reduce duplication of efforts and services. EDEN offers a searchable database of Extension professionals, resources, member universities and disaster agency websites, education materials to help people deal with a wide range of hazards, and food and agricultural defense educational resources. EDEN’s 2023-2025 strategic plan outlines the Network's priorities related to strategic structure and management, targeted communication and outreach, and disaster management education.
Currently Funded Projects
PROJECT NAME: Advancing Agrosecurity and Community Resilience through Collaboration, Capacity-Building and Extension Program Innovation
ORGANIZATION: Purdue University
AWARD NUMBER: 2022-37623-38357
PROJECT START/END DATES: 09/15/2022 - 09/14/2023
DIRECTOR: Jason Henderson
PROJECT NAME: Advancing Agrosecurity and Community Resilience through Collaboration, Capacity-Building and Extension Program Innovation
ORGANIZATION: Purdue University
AWARD NUMBER: 2018-37620-28830
PROJECT START/END DATES: 09/01/2018 - 08/31/2023
DIRECTOR: Jason Henderson
Eligibility
In accordance with section 1472(c) of NARETPA, applicants may be: State agricultural experiment stations, State cooperative extension services, all colleges and universities, other research or education institutions and organizations, Federal and private agencies and organizations, individuals, and any other contractor or recipient, either foreign or domestic, to further research, extension, or teaching programs in the food and agricultural sciences of the Department of Agriculture. Failure to meet an eligibility criterion by the application deadline may result in the application being excluded from consideration or, even though an application may be reviewed, will preclude NIFA from making an award.
The Award Process
The FADI-EDEN Request for Application (RFA) will be published in 2023. An award will be made through a competitive grants process, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). All applications for funding must be submitted electronically through Grants.gov. This process requires pre-registration which can take up to one month. We encourage all potential applicants to begin the registration process as soon as possible.
Reviewers from universities, government, community-based organizations, for-profit and non-profit organizations, and from the emergency management community will provide peer assessment and make a funding recommendation.
NIFA intends to fund one Extension project through a standard grant, and the award is a cooperative agreement that is issued on a continuation basis. A continuation award is an award instrument by which NIFA agrees to support a specified level of effort for a pre-determined period of time with a statement of intention to provide additional support at a future date, provided that performance has been satisfactory, appropriations are available for this purpose, and continued support would be in the best interest of the federal government and the public.
Post-Award Monitoring
The award recipient is required to acknowledge USDA NIFA funding in all presentations, publications, news releases, etc. The award recipient is required to collect and submit outcome-based data to USDA NIFA through annual progress reports and a final technical report and to share these reports with the EDEN Executive Committee.