USDA Foreign Agricultural Service Grant: Building Food System Resilience Against Price Shocks

Background

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides leadership on food, water, agriculture, natural resources, rural development, nutrition, and related issues based on public policy, the best available science, and effective management. Within USDA, the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) provides technical agricultural assistance to foreign countries to make agricultural policy decisions based on evidence, science, and international rules and standards for safe, sustainable trade and food security. USDA’s extensive science and technology enterprise, including research, education and extension, result in innovations that support a safe, sustainable, and competitive U.S. food system with co-benefits that span the globe.

Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked and unjustified attack on Ukraine and its people is taking a devastating human toll – with lives tragically lost, families broken apart and displaced, and communities and cities destroyed. This created significant disruptions in global food and fertilizer markets. Both front-line countries directly affected by the war and low and middle-income countries are experiencing food and fertilizer price shocks and can benefit from technical assistance to develop responses to these disruptions.

FAS seeks to support a variety of international programming related to food security and resilience through existing or new project-specific agreements with variety of partners, including USAID, the U.S. Department of State, and other federal agencies, and in collaboration with public and private-sector stakeholders and partners.

Scope

USDA seeks to support applied regionally- or country-specific research and analysis in food and agricultural systems and provide short-term technical consultants to support low- and middle-income countries affected by food and fertilizer price shocks as a result of the conflict. This support is available to low- and middle-income countries that are directly affected by the war and that receive U.S. Government agricultural development assistance.

The recipient of this award will be part of the USDA/FAS-led effort to provide regionally- or country-specific research- and analysis-based food and agricultural systems expert consultations for initiating, developing, revising, or renewing their country action plans or strategies in response to food and fertilizer price hikes as a result of war in Ukraine. As such, specific studies, analyses, assessments, etc. will be identified and determined collaboratively after award.

The recipient will assemble teams of experts who will support the development of action plans and strategies in low and middle-income countries that transform and strengthen the resilience of their local food systems to better cope with price shocks.

Through this activity, USDA aims to achieve the following outcomes:

• Improving understanding of circumstances through research and analyses, in consultation with partners including U.S. Government personnel to address research questions related to food and fertilizer price shocks.

• Engaging regionally- or country-specific technical expertise in food and agricultural systems and other areas of food and agricultural sciences that can be used in developing action plans and strategies to reduce food insecurity caused by food and fertilizer price shocks.

• Publish and otherwise disseminate written reports and other information products based on the recipient’s research and analyses to support the country strategies and plans.