Awarded Grants
Below is a listing of our awarded grants that tackle big food and agriculture challenges.

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425 Grants found

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Enabling African Scientists: The African Plant Breeding Academy CRISPR Course

Year Awarded  2022

FFAR award amount   $1,000,000

Total award amount   $1,999,998

Location   Davis, CA

Matching Funders   Bayer Crop Sciences, Syngenta Seeds, LLC

Grantee Institution   University of California Davis

While Africa is abundant with crops, African farmers need crop breeding tools and training to be self-sustainable and achieve nutritional security. To advance crop breeding and mobilize innovation for regional crops, the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) to create and deliver a CRISPR Course on gene editing through UC Davis’ African Plant Breeding Academy. The Course is training 80 African scientists to develop improved regional crop varieties with the characteristics required for successful crop production and nutrition.

Improving biological nitrogen fixation in wheat using the natural variation present in crop wild relatives

Year Awarded  2022

Total award amount   $75,000

Location   Pullman, WA

Matching Funders   OCP North America

Grantee Institution   Biotech Naturale

Dr. Kanwardeep S. Rawale’s research aims to improve wheat’s biofertilizer use efficiency by identifying and transferring genes from wild wheat using their novel method of targeted alien gene transfer. This project has significant potential to transform biofertilizers into efficient chemical fertilizer alternatives for producers.

Green fertilizers for urban spaces: use of human urine to generate high value fertilizers

Year Awarded  2022

Total award amount   $91,106

Location   Berkeley, CA

Matching Funders   OCP North America and University of California, Berkeley

Grantee Institution   University of California Berkely

Dr. Utsav Shashvatt ‘s research aims to recover nutrients in human waste to form two types of high value fertilizers, controlled release and liquid, to offset the use of conventional fertilizers. The increased use of waste-derived fertilizers will help reduce dependence on conventional fertilizers, which are generated using non-renewable resources.

Nutrient carrier minerals for efficient and circular use of phosphorus in tropical crop production systems

Year Awarded  2022

Total award amount   $75,000

Location   Leuven, Belgium

Matching Funders   OCP North America

Grantee Institution   KU Leuven

Dr. Maarten Everaert is assisting sub-Saharan African small-scale farmers to increase their limited access to phosphorus fertilizers through an innovative approach of phosphorus recycling using locally available resources. By improving their phosphorus-depleted soils, this project will help these farmers to safeguard their agricultural productivity to meet local food demands, while also supporting limited use of external inputs, soil regeneration, wastewater treatment and minimal environmental impact.

Recycling nutrients for robust agricultural supply chains

Year Awarded  2022

FFAR award amount   $450,000

Location   Beltsville, MD

This research is developing a Manureshed Action Research Cycle to build regional and supply-chain resilience through systematic recycling of manure nutrients onto beef, dairy, poultry and swine feed crops. This research integrates social and biophysical science with stakeholder engagement to give animal producers, farmers and ranchers better capacity to connect with each other to redistribute manure nutrients from farms with manure surplus to fields and pastures that can use it sustainably.

Next-generation phenotyping and genomics for identifying, breeding, and managing more sustainable beef cattle

Year Awarded  2022

FFAR award amount   $449,964

Location   Knoxville, TN

Grantee Institution   University of Tennessee

The beef industry faces pressure to reduce its environmental footprint and help combat climate change but increasing sustainability presents a complex challenge. This research leverages machine learning, high throughput phenotyping, and genomics to measure and predict sustainability-related traits like water use, forage intake, and methane emission. Additionally, the project will use genomic approaches to identify genes and genetic networks affecting sustainability traits.

A Big Data Tool for Urban Tree Crop Selection Under Climate Change

Year Awarded  2022

FFAR award amount   $449,936

Location   Davis, CA

Grantee Institution   University of California Davis

The impacts of climate change on urban tree crops and productions are largely unknown, posing a significant threat to urban farming efforts and their future resilience and sustainability. This research is leveraging big data to create novel scientific evidence on the climate suitability and vulnerability of dozens of urban tree crop species across the U.S.

Leveraging Phasic Environment and Nutrient Solution Management to Improve Resource Use Efficiency of Indoor Vertical Farming

Year Awarded  2022

FFAR award amount   $450,000

Location   Newark, DE

Grantee Institution   University of Deleware+

While previous plant physiology research has advanced our understanding of how individual factors influence plant growth and development, there has not been enough focus on how these factors work as a whole. This research aims to improve the whole-plant photosynthesis and nutritional quality of indoor crops by understanding and optimizing the interactions among key environmental factors such as light, air temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide and root-zone factors, such as fertilization, for each growth phase.

Enabling sustainable soil and water management through microbe-powered RF soil sensing

Year Awarded  2022

FFAR award amount   $450,000

Location   Santa Cruz, CA

Grantee Institution   University of California Santa Cruz

Monitoring soil properties is an effective way to decrease resource consumption while maintaining crop yields. However, most farms do not use sensor data to guide soil inputs and irrigation, primarily because traditional sensor networks are costly and require significant labor to install and maintain. This research is creating a new technique for agricultural soil sensing that pairs wireless underground tags with an aboveground mobile reader.

Agroecosystem responses to climate change, biodiversity loss and food insecurity in the United States and Latin America

Year Awarded  2022

FFAR award amount   $446,474

Location   Syracuse, NY

Grantee Institution   University of Florida

Climate change, biodiversity loss and food insecurity are three of the most pressing challenges facing humanity. To address these, agroecology stresses the importance of promoting biodiversity conservation and food sovereignty in our food system. This research uses interdisciplinary, multiregional, and community-based approaches to examine the impacts of environmental change on biodiversity and human livelihoods, and the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem services in rural and urban agricultural landscapes.