Exotic Fruit Fly Strategic Plan, Fiscal Years 2006-2010, 62241-62242 [E6-17777]
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Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 205 / Tuesday, October 24, 2006 / Notices
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service
[Docket No. APHIS–2006–0007]
Exotic Fruit Fly Strategic Plan, Fiscal
Years 2006–2010
AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
SUMMARY: We are advising the public
that the Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service has prepared a final
Exotic Fruit Fly Strategic Plan for fiscal
years 2006 through 2010 and is making
it available for review. The final
strategic plan has been updated in
response to the comments we received
on the draft strategic plan.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr.
Michael B. Stefan, Director, Fruit Fly
Exclusion and Detection Programs, PPQ,
APHIS, 4700 River Road, Unit 137,
Riverdale, MD 20737–1229; (301) 734–
4387.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
rmajette on PROD1PC67 with NOTICES1
The Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service (APHIS) responds to
exotic fruit fly risks with an integrated
system that incorporates surveillance
activities, fruit fly control programs, and
regulatory actions. To outline how
APHIS, along with its domestic and
global partners, will harmonize these
exotic fruit fly safeguarding programs
and activities over the next 5 years, we
prepared a draft document entitled
‘‘Exotic Fruit Fly Strategic Plan FY
2006–2010.’’ This draft strategic plan
focused on the activities funded through
APHISs’ Fruit Fly Exclusion and
Detection programs, whose primary
mission is to protect the health and
value of American agriculture resources
threatened by the establishment of
exotic fruit fly pests.
On February 17, 2006, we published
in the Federal Register (71 FR 8563,
Docket No. APHIS–2006–0007) a
notice 1 advising the public we had
prepared the draft strategic plan and
made it available to the public for
review and comment.
We solicited comments concerning
the draft strategic plan for 30 days
ending March 20, 2006. We received
1 To view the draft strategic plan and the
comments we received, go to https://
www.regulations.gov, click on the ‘‘Advanced
Search’’ tab, and select ‘‘Docket Search.’’ In the
Docket ID field, enter APHIS–2006–0007, then click
on ‘‘Submit.’’ Clicking on the Docket ID link in the
search results page will produce a list of all
documents in the docket.
VerDate Aug<31>2005
14:25 Oct 23, 2006
Jkt 211001
eight comments by that date, from
producers, private citizens, a not-forprofit organization, and representatives
of State governments. All of the
commenters supported the
implementation of the 5-year exotic fruit
fly strategic plan; however, some of the
commenters also expressed concerns
regarding the information provided, and
the questions posed, in the appendices
to the draft plan. The issues raised by
the commenters are discussed below.
In Appendix A we offered up for
discussion the potential actions we
could take in response to the closing of
the sterile Mediterranean fruit fly
(Medfly) production facility in
Waimanalo, HI. The following options
were presented: (1) Do not replace the
facility; (2) build a new production
facility in Hawaii; (3) partner with
California Department of Food and
Agriculture to expand their sterile fruit
fly production facility in Hawaii; or (4)
build a multispecies facility in the
continental United States or on foreign
soil. The commenters all agreed on the
need for a multispecies exotic fruit fly
facility to provide backup capacity for
our sterile fruit fly programs and
emergency needs. Additionally, several
commenters suggested potential sites for
the new facility.
APHIS is in agreement with these
commenters regarding the need for a
backup multispecies sterile fruit fly
production facility. We have begun to
explore the available options, including
the construction of a multispecies exotic
fruit fly facility, either within or outside
the continental United States, and the
privatization of sterile fly production.
We will be seeking additional
information and suggestions from the
public on this subject and expect to
publish a request for information in a
future issue of the Federal Register.
In Appendix B, we offered up for
discussion a question as to whether or
not we should continue to support the
current Moscamed Program, a
cooperative program of the Guatemalan,
Mexican, and U.S. Governments to
eradicate Medfly in Mexico and
suppress Medfly populations in
Guatemala. In the past, reliance on
uncertain emergency funds has severely
impacted the ability of Moscamed
managers to plan and implement an
effective program. In order to
successfully maintain a Medfly barrier
in southern Mexico, and, ultimately
eradicate the pest from Central America,
funding and management issues must be
stabilized. Due to a potential loss of
emergency funding ($10 million of
Commodity Credit Corporation funds
per year), the draft strategic plan
suggested four options for altering the
PO 00000
Frm 00004
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
62241
current program: (1) Eradicate Medfly
from Guatemala and create a new barrier
zone to maintain; (2) shift the barrier
zone to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec; (3)
pull out of the cooperative agreement
with Mexico and use all $19 million to
fight Medfly in Guatemala; or (4) pull
out of the cooperative Moscamed
Program in Mexico and Guatemala, and
establish an emergency fund for
preventative measures along the U.S.Mexico border and for emergency
outbreaks in the United States. As a
result of these suggestions, a majority of
the commenters expressed concern that
altering the current Moscamed Program
would diminish its effectiveness.
Though it was not offered as an option,
several commenters requested that we
continue with the currently
implemented Moscamed Program,
unchanged.
APHIS is in agreement with these
commenters with regard to continuing
the currently implemented Moscamed
Program. Because of the potential loss of
emergency funding for the program, we
have requested an additional
$14 million in appropriated funds for
the Moscamed Program in our 2007
Presidential Budget Proposal.
A few commenters requested we
clarify the strategic plan by including
additional specific information in the
scientific support section before the
draft’s finalization.
In response to these comments, we
have updated the scientific support
section of the strategic plan by
identifying specific detection and
population suppression technologies
through which APHIS will seek to
reduce the number and severity of
exotic fruit fly outbreaks within the
United States. We have also included
additional risk mitigation information
regarding the use of molecular
diagnostic techniques and tools that
identify foreign sources of fruit fly pest
introductions, as well as assurance that
risk assessment will be a high priority
in quality assurance of the fruit fly
program.
We are making the final document
available to the public for review. You
may view the document on the
Regulations.gov Web site (see footnote 1
in this notice for instructions for
accessing Regulations.gov), or you may
request copies from the person listed
under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT. Please refer to the title of the
document when requesting copies.
Finally, the document is available for
review in our reading room. The reading
room is located in room 1141 of the
USDA South Building, 14th Street and
Independence Avenue, SW.,
Washington, DC. Normal reading room
E:\FR\FM\24OCN1.SGM
24OCN1
62242
Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 205 / Tuesday, October 24, 2006 / Notices
hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday
through Friday, except holidays. To be
sure someone is there to help you,
please call (202) 690–2817 before
coming.
Done in Washington, DC, this 18th day of
October 2006.
Kevin Shea,
Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. E6–17777 Filed 10–23–06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410–34–P
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Farm Service Agency
Notice of Funds Availability (NOFA)
Inviting Applications for the
Implementation of an American Indian
Credit Outreach Initiative
Farm Service Agency, USDA.
Notice.
AGENCY:
rmajette on PROD1PC67 with NOTICES1
ACTION:
SUMMARY: The Farm Service Agency
(FSA) soliciting applications for
competitive cooperative agreement
funds for Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 to
initiate a credit outreach initiative
targeted to American Indian farmers,
ranchers and youth residing primarily
on Indian reservations within the
contiguous United States. FSA
anticipates the availability of $1,166,400
in funding. FSA requests proposals from
eligible 501(c)(3) nonprofit
organizations, land-grant institutions
and federally-recognized Indian tribal
governments interested in a
competitively-awarded cooperative
agreement to create and implement a
mechanism that will provide credit
outreach and promotion, pre-loan
education, one-on-one loan application
preparation assistance and other related
services as proposed by the successful
applicant that are specific to FSA’s
Agricultural Credit Programs.
The successful applicant must
provide evidence that it has the
capability to put in place a data tracking
system that thoroughly records all credit
outreach-specific related activities and
has the ability to provide detailed
statistical information on an ad hoc
basis. This database must also be
functional on a real-time basis as well
as being available online through the
Internet.
This request for proposals is made
prior to passage of a final appropriations
bill to allow applicants sufficient time
to submit proposals, give the Agency
maximum time to process applications,
and permit continuity of this program.
If actual funding differs from that
anticipated ($1,166,400) based on
VerDate Aug<31>2005
14:25 Oct 23, 2006
Jkt 211001
historical funding levels, then the
Agency will publish a separate Notice of
Funds Availability.
DATES: Applications should be
completed and submitted as soon as
possible, and must be received by the
Agency no later than November 24,
2006. Late applications will not be
accepted and will be returned to the
applicant. Applicants must ensure that
the service they use to deliver their
applications can do so by the deadline.
Due to recent security concerns,
packages sent to the Agency by mail
have been delayed several days or even
weeks.
ADDRESSES: Submit proposals and other
required materials to Mike Hill, Acting
Director, Outreach Staff, Farm Service
Agency, USDA, STOP 0511, Suite 508
Portals Building, 1400 Independence
Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20250–
0511.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Mike Hill at (202) 690–1299, or at
mike.hill@wdc.usda.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Objective
This solicitation is issued pursuant to
7 U.S.C. 2204b(b)(4) authorizing the
Secretary of Agriculture to enter into
cooperative agreements to improve the
coordination and effectiveness of
Federal programs affecting rural areas.
The principal objective of this
cooperative agreement is to initiate a
national outreach program that enables
American Indian farmers, ranchers, and
youth primarily located on Indian
reservations in the contiguous United
States to understand and have access to
the various FSA Agriculture Credit
Programs. All proposed approaches
must have, within three months upon
acceptance of award: (1) A data tracking
system that thoroughly records all credit
outreach specific activities and has the
ability to provide detailed statistical
information on an ad hoc basis, that
must also be functional on a real-time
basis as well as being available online
through the Internet, and (2) the
applicant must demonstrate its ability to
learn to deliver these credit outreach
services utilizing the FSA online Farm
Business Plan software program.
Proposals should demonstrate
innovative and unique ways of ensuring
that American Indians: (1) Will be
provided a targeted promotional
campaign about, (2) have ready access
to, (3) are educated about and (4) can
obtain one-on-one assistance specific to
the various FSA Agricultural Credit
Programs. Applicants must also
demonstrate and provide evidence of
their ability to record and track
PO 00000
Frm 00005
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
program-specific data which can be
accessed on a real-time basis and be
available online through the Internet.
Background
Today, American Indians own and
control approximately 56 million acres
of agricultural lands held in trust by the
United States Government and
administered, for the most part, by the
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the
Department of the Interior. Land-based
agricultural enterprises are considered
the primary source of revenue for most
tribes, due in large part to their severe
isolation from any urban type industrial
development activities. Thus, protecting
this resource is an important function of
the elected tribal officials charged with
operating business activities that take
place within reservations.
In the late 1800’s the United States
Government recognized the significant
needs of agriculture, the agricultural
community, and the impacts they had
on the American economy and the
world as a whole. With this in mind, the
government created the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA) to
insure a safe, reliable, and cheap supply
of food for this country and ultimately
the world. The USDA provides farmers
and ranchers technical, financial, and
educational resources.
Until 1987, American Indian
agricultural producers on reservations
had been less able to benefit from USDA
services. Since 1987, changes, such as
Farm Bills with Indian-specific
language, have begun to close some of
the gaps in American Indians’ lack of
access to USDA’s programs and
services. As positive as these changes
were, they did not fully address an
implementation plan or the funds to
implement sorely needed agribusiness
education and direct services to
American Indian Reservation farmers
and ranchers as a group.
On May 13, 2002, President Bush
signed into law the ‘‘Farm Security and
Rural Investment Act of 2002’’ (2002Farm Bill). Again, American Indian
Reservation farmers and ranchers are
faced with the challenge of
understanding and accessing the
programs and services afforded through
this new law. With this in mind,
American Indian agribusinesses, as well
as individual Indians, have consistently
reported that the primary need in Indian
agriculture was access to the capital
required to own and operate their own
farm or ranch. Therefore, FSA has
undertaken this initiative to create and
implement a mechanism that will
provide credit outreach and other
related services related to FSA’s
Agricultural Credit Programs as a way to
E:\FR\FM\24OCN1.SGM
24OCN1
]]>Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 205 (Tuesday, October 24, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Pages 62241-62242]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E6-17777]
[[Page 62241]]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
[Docket No. APHIS-2006-0007]
Exotic Fruit Fly Strategic Plan, Fiscal Years 2006-2010
AGENCY: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, USDA.
ACTION: Notice of availability.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: We are advising the public that the Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service has prepared a final Exotic Fruit Fly Strategic Plan
for fiscal years 2006 through 2010 and is making it available for
review. The final strategic plan has been updated in response to the
comments we received on the draft strategic plan.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mr. Michael B. Stefan, Director, Fruit
Fly Exclusion and Detection Programs, PPQ, APHIS, 4700 River Road, Unit
137, Riverdale, MD 20737-1229; (301) 734-4387.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Background
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) responds to
exotic fruit fly risks with an integrated system that incorporates
surveillance activities, fruit fly control programs, and regulatory
actions. To outline how APHIS, along with its domestic and global
partners, will harmonize these exotic fruit fly safeguarding programs
and activities over the next 5 years, we prepared a draft document
entitled ``Exotic Fruit Fly Strategic Plan FY 2006-2010.'' This draft
strategic plan focused on the activities funded through APHISs' Fruit
Fly Exclusion and Detection programs, whose primary mission is to
protect the health and value of American agriculture resources
threatened by the establishment of exotic fruit fly pests.
On February 17, 2006, we published in the Federal Register (71 FR
8563, Docket No. APHIS-2006-0007) a notice \1\ advising the public we
had prepared the draft strategic plan and made it available to the
public for review and comment.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ To view the draft strategic plan and the comments we
received, go to https://www.regulations.gov, click on the ``Advanced
Search'' tab, and select ``Docket Search.'' In the Docket ID field,
enter APHIS-2006-0007, then click on ``Submit.'' Clicking on the
Docket ID link in the search results page will produce a list of all
documents in the docket.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
We solicited comments concerning the draft strategic plan for 30
days ending March 20, 2006. We received eight comments by that date,
from producers, private citizens, a not-for-profit organization, and
representatives of State governments. All of the commenters supported
the implementation of the 5-year exotic fruit fly strategic plan;
however, some of the commenters also expressed concerns regarding the
information provided, and the questions posed, in the appendices to the
draft plan. The issues raised by the commenters are discussed below.
In Appendix A we offered up for discussion the potential actions we
could take in response to the closing of the sterile Mediterranean
fruit fly (Medfly) production facility in Waimanalo, HI. The following
options were presented: (1) Do not replace the facility; (2) build a
new production facility in Hawaii; (3) partner with California
Department of Food and Agriculture to expand their sterile fruit fly
production facility in Hawaii; or (4) build a multispecies facility in
the continental United States or on foreign soil. The commenters all
agreed on the need for a multispecies exotic fruit fly facility to
provide backup capacity for our sterile fruit fly programs and
emergency needs. Additionally, several commenters suggested potential
sites for the new facility.
APHIS is in agreement with these commenters regarding the need for
a backup multispecies sterile fruit fly production facility. We have
begun to explore the available options, including the construction of a
multispecies exotic fruit fly facility, either within or outside the
continental United States, and the privatization of sterile fly
production. We will be seeking additional information and suggestions
from the public on this subject and expect to publish a request for
information in a future issue of the Federal Register.
In Appendix B, we offered up for discussion a question as to
whether or not we should continue to support the current Moscamed
Program, a cooperative program of the Guatemalan, Mexican, and U.S.
Governments to eradicate Medfly in Mexico and suppress Medfly
populations in Guatemala. In the past, reliance on uncertain emergency
funds has severely impacted the ability of Moscamed managers to plan
and implement an effective program. In order to successfully maintain a
Medfly barrier in southern Mexico, and, ultimately eradicate the pest
from Central America, funding and management issues must be stabilized.
Due to a potential loss of emergency funding ($10 million of Commodity
Credit Corporation funds per year), the draft strategic plan suggested
four options for altering the current program: (1) Eradicate Medfly
from Guatemala and create a new barrier zone to maintain; (2) shift the
barrier zone to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec; (3) pull out of the
cooperative agreement with Mexico and use all $19 million to fight
Medfly in Guatemala; or (4) pull out of the cooperative Moscamed
Program in Mexico and Guatemala, and establish an emergency fund for
preventative measures along the U.S.-Mexico border and for emergency
outbreaks in the United States. As a result of these suggestions, a
majority of the commenters expressed concern that altering the current
Moscamed Program would diminish its effectiveness. Though it was not
offered as an option, several commenters requested that we continue
with the currently implemented Moscamed Program, unchanged.
APHIS is in agreement with these commenters with regard to
continuing the currently implemented Moscamed Program. Because of the
potential loss of emergency funding for the program, we have requested
an additional $14 million in appropriated funds for the Moscamed
Program in our 2007 Presidential Budget Proposal.
A few commenters requested we clarify the strategic plan by
including additional specific information in the scientific support
section before the draft's finalization.
In response to these comments, we have updated the scientific
support section of the strategic plan by identifying specific detection
and population suppression technologies through which APHIS will seek
to reduce the number and severity of exotic fruit fly outbreaks within
the United States. We have also included additional risk mitigation
information regarding the use of molecular diagnostic techniques and
tools that identify foreign sources of fruit fly pest introductions, as
well as assurance that risk assessment will be a high priority in
quality assurance of the fruit fly program.
We are making the final document available to the public for
review. You may view the document on the Regulations.gov Web site (see
footnote 1 in this notice for instructions for accessing
Regulations.gov), or you may request copies from the person listed
under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT. Please refer to the title of the
document when requesting copies. Finally, the document is available for
review in our reading room. The reading room is located in room 1141 of
the USDA South Building, 14th Street and Independence Avenue, SW.,
Washington, DC. Normal reading room
[[Page 62242]]
hours are 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, except holidays.
To be sure someone is there to help you, please call (202) 690-2817
before coming.
Done in Washington, DC, this 18th day of October 2006.
Kevin Shea,
Acting Administrator, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
[FR Doc. E6-17777 Filed 10-23-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3410-34-P
