SSARE Grant Profile: Research & Education Grants

What is SARE?

Since 1988, the Sustainable Agricul-ture Research & Education (SARE) program has been the go-to USDA grants and outreach program for farmers, ranchers, researchers and educators who want to develop in-novations that improve farm profit-ability, protect water and land, and revitalize communities. To date, SARE has awarded $251 million for more than 6,300 initiatives.

The Southern Region

The Southern region SARE program is made up 13 states and two U.S. territories: Alabama, Arkansas, Flor-ida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Okla-homa, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas Virginia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The region is administered by a host consortium consisting of the Univer-sity of Georgia and Fort Valley State University with staff located at the University of Georgia-Griffin campus, Fort Valley State University, and the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agricul-ture in Oklahoma.

Southern SARE funds several differ-ent grant programs, and each type of grant benefits a different constitu-ency. First there are the “big grant” programs for research and education and for professional development. Then there are the smaller grants for farmers and the professionals who work directly with them, as well as funding opportunities for graduate students and communities.

Grants are understood to be the chief lubricant in the development of new approaches and new ideas in sustainable agriculture. The program also emphasizes outreach and the dissemination of project results so that the grant program will have the widest possible benefit.

To date, SSARE has awarded $62.7 million for more than 1,100 initia-tives.

Learn more about SARE by visiting http://www.southernsare.org

Southern SARE’s Research & Education (R&E) Grants are the flagship grants of the program. They were the first grants offered when the program was launched in 1988, and were the only sustainable ag grants available to researchers and educators until additional grant programs were added to SSARE in 1994.

R&E grants are among SSARE’s “big-grant” programs; they have budgets to accommodate systems-scale projects and require a two-step application process.

From 1988-2018, 299 grants were awarded, totaling more than $46.2 mil-lion.

In 1991, as part of the R&E grant program, USDA and EPA established ACE (Agriculture in Concert with the Environment) grants with the intent on funding projects related to environmental benefits or reduction in en-vironmental damage. From 1992 to 1996, 19 grants were awarded, totaling over $2.1 million.

Number of R&E Grants Awarded Per State, 1988-2018*

*One grant funded out of region

17

30

31

25

53

54

19

14

12

8

9

7

9

65

Southern SARE Grant Profile

Published by the Southern Region of the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program. Funded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), Southern SARE oper-ates under cooperative agreements with the University of Georgia, Fort Valley State University, and the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture to offer competitive grants to advance sustainable agri-culture in America’s Southern region. This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, through Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education. USDA is an equal opportunity employer and service provider. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the view of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

= 10 units

1862

1890

Other

Number of Grants Awarded by Institution (1988-2018)

Resolving Issues

“SARE funded Project LS11-240 that analyzed issues related to the organic farms’ access to regular farm credit needed to respond to pressures to expand business scale and scope due to an expanding organic consumer demand. The study was motivat-ed by the general perception of the small organic farms’ growing tendency to become more debt averse. Meanwhile, the USDA launched its microloan program in 2013 that provided the per-fect supplement to the project’s efforts in resolving an impor-tant issue in the small farmers’ access to regular farm credit. The USDA’s accommodation of smaller loan requests now has encouraged many small farm businesses, including organic farms, to reconsider credit as an important input in their ex-panding operations.” -- Cesar Escalante, University of Geor-gia

Successful Beef Producers

“SARE has been instrumental in developing my research pro-gram in sustainable beef pro-duction through the years. Re-search projects funded through the program have helped pro-duce information in grazing and cattle management that have been extremely useful for beef cattle producers. This fact has been corroborated in the last 5 years through a 30 per-cent increase in the number of producers at our field days and pasture walks. Similarly, our in-formation has proven useful for producers to become grass-fed beef producers. There are 12 new producers in Louisiana who have used our information to start their own business and there are more that are working on their business plan to try to develop this practice. Successes like these help to further de-velop this market and hopefully greatly impacting the business community.” -- Guillermo Sca-glia, Louisiana State Univer-sity

Changing the Conversation

“Our project is answering basic questions about the viability and profitability of value-added food enterprises, featuring products made from sustainably grown fruits and vegetables. The fund-ing we received from Southern SARE has allowed us to put a high-caliber product develop-ment team to work for the small- and mid-sized sustainable and organic farms of Texas, deliver-ing a level of professional ser-vice that has generally only been available to the state’s large agri-businesses. We have also cre-ated a directory of resources, including commercial kitchens, food manufacturing facilities, food brokers, food distributors, and food analysis labs. SARE is changing the conversation about local food in Texas: inspir-ing growers to think outside the box and consider alternatives to the direct marketing of whole, fresh fruits and vegetables.” -- Mike Morris, NCAT, Texas

Sustainable Tools

“I have been fortunate enough to have been involved with Southern region SARE since 2002 on R&E grants, Producer grants and Graduate Student grants. The funding was for control of parasites in small ruminants. Because internal parasites are the most serious health threat to small ruminants in warm, humid climates and available dewormers are inef-fective, the technology or tools that we have provided have al-lowed farmers to become more sustainable. ” -- Joan Burke, USDA-ARS

NGO

Govt.