FFAR envisions a world where nutritious, affordable food is grown on thriving farms. Healthy soil is a key component for making this vision a reality. The Soil Health Challenge Area enriches soil by building knowledge, fueling innovation and enabling the adoption of soil management practices.
The Soil Health Challenge Area supports research on:
FFAR is expanding and exploring transdisciplinary approaches that draw linkages between soil health and farm productivity, economics, human health, management practices and other areas. FFAR continues to support research that produces open, data-driven, innovative results that help farmers make productive and sustainable decisions to conserve and improve soil health, while supporting thriving farms.
Download the full Healthy Soils, Thriving Farms Vision Statement to learn more about the strategic direction of this FFAR Challenge Area.
We match every federal dollar with private funding, delivering a powerful return on taxpayer investment. The funding supports bold, innovative grants to fill critical knowledge gaps and advance science. Our work improves the food and agriculture system and provides a better quality of life for Americans and people around the globe.
SMART Broiler Research Initiative
FFAR and McDonald’s Corporation have teamed up to offer $4 million to the group or individual who successfully develops and commercializes an automated monitoring tool that quantitatively assess key animal welfare indicators in broiler chickens.
Egg-Tech Prize
FFAR is offering up to $6 million in prizes to the firm, group or individual who successfully develops a technology that can accurately and rapidly determine the sex of layer chicks before they hatch. Billions of layer chicks are hatched each year to supply the world’s eggs, with demand expected to rise in coming years. Male chicks are culled on the day of hatch, as they cannot lay eggs and are unsuitable for consumption. The Egg-Tech Prize RFA includes more information about this opportunity.
Egg-Tech Prize
READ MOREFFAR is offering up to $6 million in prizes to the firm, group or individual who successfully develops a technology that can accurately and rapidly determine the sex of layer chicks before they hatch. Billions of layer chicks are hatched each year to supply the world’s eggs, with demand expected to rise in coming years. Male chicks are culled on the day of hatch, as they cannot lay eggs and are unsuitable for consumption. The Egg-Tech Prize RFA includes more information about this opportunity.
SANTA CRUZ (July 15, 2020) – The Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF) and the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) are pleased to award three grants to researchers in California, Pennsylvania, and Texas to bolster soil health by developing innovative organic strategies for controlling weeds, pests and disease. OFRF and FFAR formed a partnership in 2019 to increase funding for […]
SANTA CRUZ and WASHINGTON (June 2, 2020) – The Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF) and the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) awarded a second year of funding to Dr. Jed Eberly at Montana State University based on the promise shown in his first year of organic lentil trials. Eberly and his team are […]
SANTA CRUZ AND WASHINGTON D.C. (August 1, 2019) — The Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF) and the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) are funding two soil health research projects that examine how on-farm diversification practices control weeds and affect crop yields. OFRF and FFAR funded these two projects as part of a larger […]
