As part of our mission supporting farmers and ranchers, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) provides extensive education and outreach for producers.

This typically involves public meetings, mailings, news releases, and interactions with individual producers seeking additional information or to

credit: John Hopkins Krieger School of Arts and Sciences Department of Economics

enroll in a program.

However, there remains a need for additional outreach and education that could benefit potential participants in FSA’s portfolio of programs.

This RFA seeks proposals to further support and expand FSA’s existing outreach and education efforts.

The additional outreach and education could, for example, be public meetings, training sessions, and/or workshops for producers including new and beginning farmers, veterans, underserved communities, and/or established producers.

Emphasis will be afforded to proposals that propose to address producers who are ethnic minorities, women, new and beginning, veterans, urban, or who grow non-commodity crops (e.g., fruits and vegetables or specialty crops).

Proposals may include innovative outreach approaches that ease the learning curve for farmers and ranchers through training on best practices, common challenges and solutions, and local networking opportunities.

The subject matter should include an introduction to FSA, its programs, and common provisions that generally apply.

FSA’s common provisions include maintenance of producer-level records regarding payment eligibility and limitations, conservation compliance, and name and address, payments, and farm and tract information.

Additional information regarding FSA is available at www.fsa.usda.gov.