National Institute of Food and Agriculture

What National Institute of Food and Agriculture does

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is a federal agency within the United States Department of Agriculture, established in 2008 and operating since 2009 as the successor to the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES). NIFA's mandate is to provide leadership and funding for agricultural research, education, and Extension activities that advance food and nutrition security, crop and livestock production, food safety, environmental sustainability, and rural community development. The agency funds an integrated research-and-Extension portfolio spanning bioeconomy, biotechnology, nanotechnology, AI-enabled systems, robotics, sensor technologies, and data science applications, including CRISPR-based gene editing, organoid models, RNAi-based biopesticides, AI-driven robotic deboning, biosensors for pathogen detection, and machine-learning platforms for agricultural monitoring.

NIFA does not generate commercial revenue. It is funded through annual Congressional appropriations and redistributes those funds to land-grant universities (1862, 1890, and 1994 institutions), state agricultural experiment stations, schools of veterinary medicine, community organizations, and individual researchers through three mechanisms: competitive peer-reviewed grants (e.g., AFRI, SCRI, Food Safety Outreach, SARE), capacity grants distributed via statutory formulas to land-grant institutions, and noncompetitive grants directed by Congress to designated recipients. Applications flow through Grants.gov, awards are reviewed by external peer-review panels, and funds are disbursed via the Automated Standard Application for Payments (ASAP) system. Reporting and impact tracking run through REEport, the NIFA Reporting System, the Data Gateway, and the Peer Review System.

The agency serves land-grant universities, specialty crop growers and producers, agricultural researchers, veterinarians serving rural and food-animal shortage areas, food-insecure populations, and 4-H youth and educators. Operational footprint spans the Washington DC area (headquarters, currently in transition), Kansas City, and St. Louis, reflecting the April 2026 USDA reorganization of the Research, Education, and Economics Mission Area. As of early-to-mid 2025, the agency has undergone a 35% workforce reduction through federal voluntary resignation programs; despite this contraction, FY2026 appropriations include over $275 million for specialty crops and more than $220 million annually for nutrition-security research, education, and Extension.

Name

National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Legal name

National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Website

https://nifa.usda.gov

Company type

Public

Founded year

2009

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

251–500 employees

Short description

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is a USDA federal agency that distributes Congressional appropriations as competitive, capacity, and noncompetitive grants to U.S. land-grant universities and research institutions for agricultural research, education, and Extension programs.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Federal Agricultural Research Funding

akta.pro primary industry

Intergovernmental Affairs & Federal Grants Administration (BPAIAAAC)

Keywords

• Agricultural research funding
• Federal grant programs
• Agriculture extension services
• Food safety grants
• Veterinary loan repayment

Headquarters

HQ city

Washington

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Others, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Federal Appropriations and Grant Distribution: NIFA is a federal government agency that receives annual appropriations from Congress and distributes funding through competitive grants, capacity grants, and noncompetitive grants to land-grant universities, research institutions, and agricultural organizations. The agency does not generate revenue but serves as a funding mechanism for agricultural research, education, and Extension activities across the United States.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

NIFA is a federal agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers competitive grant programs and capacity funding for agricultural research, education, and extension. It distributes congressional appropriations to land-grant universities, research institutions, and partner organizations through programs such as AFRI, SCRI, SARE, VMLRP, VSGP, EGP, Research Facilities Act, 1890 Capacity Building, and GusNIP. NIFA also provides leadership for advancing agricultural sciences and supports workforce development in food and agricultural sectors.

Product overview

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is a federal government agency within USDA that provides leadership and funding for agricultural research, education, and Extension programs. NIFA does not offer commercial products; instead, it administers grant programs including competitive grants (such as the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative - AFRI, Specialty Crop Research Initiative - SCRI, and Food Safety Outreach Program), capacity grants to land-grant institutions, and noncompetitive grants. NIFA also provides data management systems including REEport for project reporting, NIFA Reporting System for capacity-funded projects, and the Automated Standard Application for Payments (ASAP) for awardee payments. Technical assistance and training resources support grant applicants and awardees throughout the grant lifecycle.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI)

Quantifiable outcome

• Over $275 million in specialty crop funding for FY2026, with SCRI doubling from $80M to $175M
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers10 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Land-grant UniversitiescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNIFA's primary partners are the 1862, 1890, and 1994 land-grant institutions that receive both capacity and competitive grant funding for agricultural research, education, and Extension. The agency supports research, teaching, and extension activities through formula-based capacity grants and competitive peer-reviewed grants at these institutions across all 50 states, territories, and the District of Columbia.
• Montana State University, University of Georgia, University of Maryland, University of Minnesota, University of VermontcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerFive land-grant universities receiving $45 million through the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program to support farmer and rancher-driven research improving agricultural production systems while conserving soil, water, energy, and natural resources.
• University of Arizona, Purdue University, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, University of MainecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerRecipients of $9.6 million in Food Safety Outreach Program funding for food safety training and education for small and mid-sized producers and processors affected by the Food Safety Modernization Act. These institutions provide outreach and training to improve food safety practices.
• Food and Drug Administration (FDA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNIFA collaborates with FDA on the Closer to Zero initiative to reduce dietary exposure to contaminants in food, contributing to science policy decision-making to improve food safety and technology.
• Washington State UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWSU researchers received approximately $2.3 million in three NIFA grants for food safety research across pre-harvest, processing, and post-harvest stages, including antimicrobial coatings, AI sanitation verification, and biopesticide development.
• Purdue University College of Veterinary MedicinecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPurdue received a four-year $650,000 New Investigator Award for research on early embryonic loss in cattle using CRISPR-based gene editing and organoid models, with potential applications to human reproductive biology.
• University of Arkansas, Georgia Tech, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Fort Valley State UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMulti-institutional research consortium through the Center for Scalable and Intelligent Automation in Poultry Processing (CSIAPP), established with a $5 million USDA NIFA grant in 2023, developing robotics, AI, and biosensor technologies for poultry processing.
• U.S. Department of Agriculture Research, Education, and Economics Mission AreacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNIFA is undergoing reorganization within the USDA REE Mission Area, with positions being relocated from Washington DC area to Kansas City and St. Louis, consolidating scattered ERS and NIFA positions as part of modernization efforts.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Department of Energy Office of Science: DOE Office of Science is a broad-incumbent federal R&D funder that competitively awards grants to universities and national labs using peer review, structurally analogous to NIFA but focused on physics, energy, and computing rather than agricultural sciences.
• National Institute of Standards and Technology: NIST operates a mix of intramural research and extramural grant/prize programs supporting U.S. innovation infrastructure, structurally similar to NIFA in its federal R&D funding and standard-setting role, though focused on industrial and physical sciences.
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: NOAA is a broad federal science agency that funds extramural research at academic institutions alongside its own laboratories, comparable in structure to NIFA's research-and-extension model but with atmospheric and oceanic rather than agricultural priorities.
• Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency: DARPA is a broad-incumbent federal R&D agency that funds high-risk, high-reward research at universities and industry; it shares NIFA's orientation toward breakthrough innovation and project-based extramural funding, though in defense rather than agriculture.
• National Institutes of Health: NIH is a much larger federal research-funding incumbent that similarly distributes competitive grants to universities and research institutions via peer review; it operates the same grant-management paradigm at substantially greater scale across biomedical rather than agricultural science.

Emerging players

• Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research: FFAR is a nonprofit established by Congress in the 2014 Farm Bill that co-funds agricultural research with public and private partners, complementing NIFA's grant programs and increasingly partnering on multi-million-dollar solicitations in overlapping research domains.

Direct peers

• USDA Agricultural Research Service: ARS is NIFA's USDA sister agency that conducts intramural agricultural research at federal laboratories; the two agencies share the broader USDA Research, Education, and Economics Mission Area and jointly shape the U.S. agricultural research portfolio.
• National Science Foundation: NSF is the closest direct peer: an independent federal agency that competitively funds basic and applied research across U.S. universities using peer review and capacity-style mechanisms, paralleling NIFA's role but focused on non-agricultural science disciplines.
• USDA Economic Research Service: ERS is a USDA peer agency producing economic and policy research on agriculture, food, and rural America, also part of the USDA REE Mission Area and subject to the same 2026 reorganization involving relocation to Kansas City and St. Louis.

Others

• Smith-Lever / Hatch Act Capacity-Funded Land-Grant Network: The land-grant university network is the downstream recipient ecosystem rather than a direct peer, but it is the primary distribution channel for NIFA capacity grants; comparable institutions (e.g., APLU, ESCOP) collectively shape how NIFA-funded research is executed across the U.S.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/usda_nifa
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/usdaagscience
• Facebookfacebook.com/USDA
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/usda

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors

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M&A

Investments37 records

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Frequently asked questions about National Institute of Food and Agriculture