The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) announced that the Request for Application (RFA) for the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP) is now available, and applications are due by Nov. 22, 2011.  Projects will be awarded in 2012 and performed between October 2012 and September 2013.  Approximately $19 million is expected to be available.

The program is now entering its fourth year, and has already funded over a hundred projects and provided training, education, outreach, and technical assistance to more than 5,000 beginning farmers or ranchers.   Each year there are many more applicants than awards, so if you are interested in applying be sure to read all of the application criteria carefully and submit a proposal that addresses all of the requirements.  Examples of past successful applications can be found here, and a full list of current projects can be found here.

NIFA will also host a grants writing webinar from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. EST on Oct. 21, 2011 to assist grantees with writing successful grant applications to this program.  More information about the program and the webinar can be found on the BFRDP website.  Or please contact Suresh Sureshwaran at bfrdp@nifa.usda.gov.

NSAC has compiled a short document that provides a summary of three BFRDP sponsored projects from different regions of the country.  Please check out these successful projects to get an idea of what BFRDP can do for your organization.