National Institute of Food and Agriculture 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is soliciting stakeholder input on the recent implementation of the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP) authorized under section 1415A of the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 (7 U.S.C. 3151a). The purpose of this program is for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to enter into agreements with veterinarians under which the veterinarians agree to provide, for a specific period of time as identified in the agreement, veterinary services in veterinarian shortage situations. As part of the stakeholder input process, NIFA is conducting a public meeting to solicit comments regarding the processes developed and implemented for the first application cycle that concluded with the first group of awards under this program in September 2010. Input collected will be used to modify and improve processes for subsequent calls of shortage situation nominations and request for applications.

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is publishing program-specific administrative provisions for the following Federal assistance programs: Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) as subpart G; the Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative (OREI); and the Integrated Research, Education, and Extension Competitive Grants Program (406), to supplement the Competitive and Noncompetitive Non-formula Federal Assistance ProgramsGeneral Award Administrative Provisions for these programs. Section 7406 of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (FCEA or the ``2008 Farm Bill'') amended section 2(b) of the Act of August 4, 1965, Competitive, Special, and Facilities Research Grant Act, to authorize the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI) to provide funding for fundamental and applied research, extension, and education to address food and agricultural sciences. The Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative is authorized under section 1672B of the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 (FACT Act), as amended by FCEA. The Integrated Research, Education, and Extension, Competitive Grants Program is authorized under section 406 of the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998, as amended by FCEA.

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), formerly known as the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) requests input from the public regarding (1) the assessment of methods and tools used by non-governmental organizations and international agencies to measure, characterize and describe nutritional gaps among populations served by U.S. humanitarian food assistance programs, including recommendations on how to improve such programs in the field at the lowest possible cost, and (2) the assessment of the most cost-effective technologies for the purification and supply of safe water which could be implemented in the field to benefit highly vulnerable populations, including recommendations on the most cost-effective and commercially available systems that require priority research assistance.

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), formerly the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES), is publishing a set of specific administrative requirements for the Biomass Research and Development Initiative (BRDI) to supplement the Competitive and Noncompetitive Non-formula Federal Assistance ProgramsGeneral Award Administrative Provisions for this program. The BRDI is authorized under section 9008 of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (FSRIA), as amended by the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008(FCEA).

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is announcing the release of the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP) Request for Applications (RFA) at https:// www.nifa.usda.gov/vmlrp.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regulations (5 CFR part 1320), which implement the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. Chapter 35), this notice announces the National Institute of Food and Agriculture's (NIFA) intention to request an extension for the currently approved information collection for the NIFA Current Research Information System (CRIS).

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is soliciting nominations for veterinary service shortage situations for the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP; [74 FR 32788- 32798]), as authorized under the National Veterinary Medical Services Act (NVMSA), 7 U.S.C. 3151a. This Notice initiates a 45-day nomination solicitation period and prescribes the procedures and criteria to be used by State, Insular Area, DC and Federal Lands (hereafter referred to as State(s)) Animal Health Officials (SAHO) in order to nominate veterinary shortage situations. All States are eligible to submit nominations, up to the maximum indicated for each State in this notice. NIFA is conducting this solicitation of veterinary shortage situation nominations under previously approved information collection (OMB Control Number 0524-0046).