Plant Health and Production and Plant Products Program Area
The Plant Health and Production and Plant Products (PHPPP) program area of the AFRI Foundational and Applied Science Program was established to increase knowledge of plant systems and the various factors that affect agricultural plant productivity. This knowledge would enable U.S. agriculture to solve critical challenges it may face in the mid-21st century. There is need for increased agricultural plant productivity, safe and nutritious food, and new products to meet the demands of a growing populations in the face of limiting resources, loss of agricultural land to urban development, and increasing global market competition.
Plant production, protection, and the development of new plant products are critical to the sustainability and competitiveness of U.S. agriculture, and our nation’s economic preeminence. The Plant health and production and plant products program area was established with the recognition that increasing knowledge of plant systems and the various factors that affect productivity will help U.S. producers and consumers face critical challenges in areas such as nutritional security, stewardship of natural resources, bioenergy, climate variability, organic production, loss of agricultural land, challenges to pollinator health, and increasing global competition. Future improvements to production systems will require a greater understanding of complex, inter-related factors, across a wide range of scales. These include investigations of plant and pest biology at molecular, cellular, and whole-organism levels as well as innovative and environmentally-sound approaches to improve plant performance and provide protection from biotic and abiotic stressors. Additionally, there is a critical need to help mitigate the ecological footprint of agriculture; the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) has articulated a vision of significantly reducing energy, water, and nitrogen use and greenhouse gas production. Applications must incorporate ways to develop approaches that will contribute to the measurable reduction of the overall ecological footprint of row crop agriculture.
In response to stakeholders' comments and to allow holistic projects on critical problems in plant production systems, a few changes have been made in the organization of the Plant Health and Production and Plant Products program area in FY 2018. In addition to the five previous program area priorities offered in FY 2017, two new program area priorities: Agricultural Microbiomes in Plant Systems and Natural Resources and Agricultural Biosecurity Coordination Network will be offered in FY 2018. Furthermore, in FY 2018, NIFA continues to jointly offer a program with the National Science Foundation (NSF) entitled, "NSF-NIFA Plant Biotic Interactions."
In FY 2018, the Plant Health and Production and Plant Products program area of the AFRI Foundational and Applied Science Program is soliciting Research Project applications for Standard, Conference, and Food and Agricultural Science Enhancement (FASE) Grant types relevant to the seven program area priorities described below. In addition, AFRI invites Research Project applications for Standard and FASE (Strengthening Standard and New Investigator) Grant types that address Commodity Board priorities that align with one of the program area priorities listed below:
- Foundational Knowledge of Agricultural Production Systems
- Pest and Beneficial Species in Agricultural Production Systems
- Pollinator Health: Research and Application
- Plant Breeding for Agricultural Production
- Physiology of Agricultural Plants
- Agricultural Microbiomes in Plant Systems and Natural Resources
- Agricultural Biosecurity Coordination Network
Research proposals submitted to this program area must justify the choice of organism or system in terms of its importance to production agriculture. The use of model systems is allowed, but applicants must clearly describe the relevance of model system development to plant production systems and also describe how results obtained from model systems will be transferred to agriculturally-important organisms during the project period.
Funded Projects
- FY 2016-2018 Foundational Knowledge of Agricultural Production Systems (A1102) Projects
- FY 2016-2018 Pest and Beneficial Species in Agricultural Production Systems (A1112) Projects
- FY 2016-2018 Pollinator Health: Research and Application (A1113) Projects
- FY 2016-2018 Plant Breeding for Agricultural Production (A1141) Projects
- FY 2016-2018 Physiology of Agricultural Plants (A1152) Projects
NIFA Internal Links
- AFRI Foundational Program
- AFRI Foundational Program Funding Opportunity Page
- FY 2018 AFRI Foundational Program Request for Applications (RFA)
- Plant Breeding, Genetics & Genomics Program
- Flow Chart for AFRI Strengthening Grant Eligibility
- Diagram of AFRI FASE and EPSCoR Funding
- AFRI Request for Applications Resources
- University of Illinois Scientists Develop Tools to Predict the Effects of Climate Variability on Crop Yield
- Cornell University Scientists Develop New Tomato Expression Atlas
- Cold Spring Harbor Scientists Discover Unique Communication Strategy in Stem Cell Pathway that Controls Plant Growth
- Washington State University Scientists Team Up to Study How Plants Can Grow Faster By Altering Phosphorylase Enzyme
- Boyce Thompson Institute and Cornell Researchers Turbocharge RuBisCO in Increase Plant Biomass
- University of Wisconsin Scientists Discover an Evolutionary Stepping Stone to Beet-red Beets
- Oregon State University Scientists Assess the Health of Forest Pollinators and Their Link to Agriculture
- Cornell University Scientists Uses X-rays to Improve Our Understanding of Copper Absorption in Wheat to Increase Yield
- Iowa State University Scientists to Study Monarch Butterfly Ecology to Support National Conservation Efforts
- Pennsylvania State University Scientists Develop Decision-support Tools for Pollinator Health