Leadership Transition for NIFA

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue recently announced that Dr. Parag Chitnis (pictured left) will serve as Acting Director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) upon the departure of Dr. Scott Angle. “Dr. Chitnis brings more than 31 years of scientific research and experience to the Director’s office. He has been instrumental in providing steady leadership and support to NIFA during its transition to Kansas City last fall, in addition to playing a lead role on NIFA’s Project CAFÉ (Collaboratively Achieving Functional Excellence) initiative which aims to help NIFA maximize business operations to better serve its customers,” said Secretary Perdue. “We thank Dr. Angle for his many contributions to NIFA and service to USDA and U.S. Agriculture.” For more information, read the USDA press release. 

ECOP Meetings this Week - Extension Directors and Administrators can the learn more about the ECOP Meetings occurring July 21^st  and 23^rd by viewing the APLU Commission on Food, Environment, & Renewable Resources (CFERR) Calendar for July 2020. All members of the Section are encouraged to attend the USDA/REE National Partnership Virtual Webinar Updates on July 22^nd. 

USDA Agricultural Innovation Agenda Listening Sessions - The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) in partnership with the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) invites Extension Directors and Administrators to participate in the USDA Agricultural Innovation Agenda Listening Sessions on Monday, July 27^th and Tuesday, July 28^th from 3:00-5:00 p.m. ET. The Agriculture Innovation Agenda (AIA) seeks to stimulate innovation so that American agriculture can achieve the goal of increasing U.S. agricultural production by 40 percent, while cutting the environmental footprint of U.S. agriculture in half by 2050. Participants are encouraged to share this invitation with producer groups. Use these links to learn more and register:

-- Monday, July 27^th  from 3:00-5:00 p.m. ET
   Driving Innovation Through Breeding Technologies in Livestock and Dairy Production, and

-- Tuesday, July 28^th from 3:00-5:00 p.m. ET
    Conservation Data to Improve Environmental Outcomes/Productivity in Farming Systems. 

Scientific Report of the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee - The 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee has completed their review of the evidence on nutrition and health, and their Scientific Report is now available online. The final report, which provides critical information to inform future Extension programming, reflects the Advisory Committee’s full examination of the evidence using three rigorous approaches: data analysis, systematic reviews, and food pattern modeling. The Report includes their conclusions and advice to the United States Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services, their rationale and, finally, their recommendation for future research. The public is encouraged to submit comments to the Departments on the Scientific Report. This is an ongoing public comment period that will end on August 13, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

NIFA Invites Partners’ Continued Participation in Capacity Grant Budget Pilot for FY 2021 - In FY 2020, to enhance financial accountability for capacity grant funds, NIFA implemented a high-level capacity budget submission process as a pilot. Over 30 institutions voluntarily participated in that pilot. For FY 2021, NIFA has decided to continue the successful FY 2020 pilot and allow institutions to get additional experience preparing and submitting these budgets. NIFA intends to require capacity grantees to submit high-level capacity grant budgets with their grant applications in FY 2022 (with the exception of the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) grantees, who already have budget submission requirements). Webinar information will be posted on NIFA’s capacity budget resource page, along with sample budgets and updated FAQs.