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Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and
Risk Management
Crisis and Emergency Management
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NOTICE: The ICDRM's monthly emergency managment forum, held at the GWU |
| February
2003
Volume 4 - Number 1 |
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Links:
Current events
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Report on Mitigation Grants and Programs by the
Department of Agriculture
The Department of Agriculture (USDA) is one of the most active federal agencies in offering grants with a total of 148 grant programs, including those offered from its sub-agencies. The grants provided by USDA are related to a variety of areas including education, research, prevention, homeland security, crop insurance, and animal health. This research will briefly summarize USDA grants and programs that are related to mitigation. · Grants for Agricultural Research, Special Research Grants (10.200): The objective of the grant is to carry out research, extension, and education to facilitate or expand promising breakthroughs in areas of the food and agricultural sciences of importance to the nation and to facilitate or expand on-going State-Federal food and agricultural research, extension, and education programs. Related Mitigation research can be funded. Total estimated amount available for FY 2003 is $22,343,000. · Animal Health and Disease Research Grants (10.207): The objective of the grant is to support animal health and disease research at eligible Schools and Colleges of Veterinary Medicine, and State Agricultural Experiment Stations whose purpose is to improve the health and productivity of food animals and horses through effective prevention, control or treatment of disease, reduction of losses from transportation and other hazards, and protect human health through control of animal diseases transmissible to people. Total estimated amount available for FY 2003 is $4,756,638 · Homeland Security Program (10.304): The objective of the program is to provide funding to protect the food supply and agricultural production, protect USDA facilities and other agricultural infrastructure and protect USDA staff and manage emergency preparedness. The grant for FY 2002 was estimated $20,600,000. · Crop Insurance Program (10.450): The objective of the program is to promote the national welfare by improving the economic stability of agriculture through a sound system of crop insurance and providing the means for the research and experience helpful in devising and establishing such insurance. For crop year 2003, the estimates are approximately 207.9 million acres for total insurance protection of an estimated $34.3 billion. · Plant and Animal Disease, Pest Control, and Animal Care Grants (10.025): The objective of the program is to protect U.S. agriculture from economically injurious plant and animal diseases and pests, ensure the safety and potency of veterinary biologic, and ensure the humane treatment of animals. Estimated grants are FY 01 $19,872,054; FY 02 $20,685,000; and FY 03 $21,441,000. · Emergency Conservation Program (10.054): The objective of the program is to enable farmers to perform emergency conservation measures to control wind erosion on farmlands, to rehabilitate farmlands damaged by wind erosion, floods, hurricanes, or other natural disasters and to carry out emergency water conservation or water enhancing measures during periods of severe drought. Direct payments to be used in a related action are estimated as FY 01 $65,681,313; FY 02 $147,093,033; and FY 03 $82,000,000. · Food and Agricultural Sciences National Needs Graduate Fellowship Grants (10.210): The aim the grant is to award grants to colleges and universities that have superior teaching and research competencies in the food and agricultural sciences to encourage outstanding students to pursue and complete a graduate degree at such institutions in an area of the food and agricultural sciences for which there is a national need for the development of scientific expertise. Estimated amount of grants are FY 01 $2,873,664; FY 02 $2,873,280; and FY 03 $2,873,280. Mitigation proposals may qualify for the grants. · Biotechnology Risk Assessment Research Program (10.219): The aim of the program is to carry out research focused on environmental effects of biotechnology. Estimated award budgets are FY 01 $756,036; FY 02 $593,445; and FY 03 $593,445. · Noninsured Assistance (10.451): The objective of the program is provide crop loss assistance comparable to the catastrophic risk protection level of crop insurance to producers of commercial crops or other agricultural commodities for which the catastrophic risk protection level of crop insurance is not available. The direct cash payments estimated for the years are FY 01 $37,750,934; FY 02 $176,500,000; and FY 03 $160,000,000. · Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Program (10.904): The aim of the program is to provide technical and financial assistance in carrying out works of improvement to protect, develop, and utilize the land and water resources in small watersheds. Technical assistance is provided in designing, and installing watershed works of improvement. Financial assistance is provided for sharing costs of measures for watershed protection, flood prevention, agricultural water management, sedimentation control, public water based fish, wildlife, recreation; and in extending long term credit to help local interests with their share of the costs. Mitigation (Land Use Planning). The range of financial assistance per state changes between $0 and $2,164,000. · Environmental Quality Incentives Program (10.912): The program provides technical, educational, and financial assistance to eligible farmers and ranchers to address soil, water, and related natural resource concerns on their lands in an environmentally beneficial and cost-effective manner. The purpose of this program is achieved through the implementation of structural, vegetative, and land management practices on eligible land. This program is funded through the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC). NRCS provides overall program management and implementation leadership for conservation planning and implementation. The Farm Service Agency provides leadership for administrative processes and procedures for the program. The financial assistance provided as grants is FY 02 $160,122,232; FY 02 $164,470,000; and FY 03 $162,000,000. Budget for salaries and expenses is FY 01 $37,989,132; FY 02 $35,530,000; and FY 03 $38,000,000. · Farmland Protection Program (10.913): The aim of the program is to purchase conservation easements or other interests on lands to limit conversion to non-agricultural uses of farmland with prime, unique, or other productive soils. In fiscal year 2001, USDA has entered into cooperative agreements with over 52 entities to protect over 34,000 acres of prime, unique, and important farmland. The amount of financial assistance per landowner changes between $21,000 and $75,000. As summarized above, a majority of USDA grants that can be categorized as related to mitigation include land use planning, environmental protection. However there are also programs related to Homeland Security and Biotechnology. Other than the special grants and programs that are mentioned above, USDA has regular yearly programs for plant and wildlife protection. Related Websites: http://www.usda.gov http://www.usda.gov/agency/obpa/Budget-Summary/2003/2003budsum.htm#fun http://www.cfda.gov/public/browse_agy.asp?agy_id=10&st=1 |