Assisting Specialty Crop Exports: Low Oxygen Storage and Packaging Systems for U.S. Tree Nuts with Phytosanitary Traceability
Foreign Agricultural Service
Description
The occurrence of insects as well as pesticide residuals can be significant barriers for U.S. horticultural exports. Each importing country can have unique phytosanitary and maximum residue limit (MRL) requirements, which creates operational and logistical challenges. To maximize return to growers, U.S. shippers need tools that can universally address all such requirements while maintaining product quality. Currently, tree nuts and many other durable specialty crops require fumigations or freezing, which are both expensive and create bottlenecks in marketing.
More and more tree nut handlers are using a modified atmosphere (MA) or controlled atmosphere (CA) technology in which low-oxygen conditions (<1% by volume) are maintained during storage and/or in packaging. Low-oxygen conditions are known to control insect pests, leave no chemical residuals, and result in high quality products since the lipid oxidation that causes rancidity is markedly suppressed. While this approach is being used as a condition of sale, there is currently no efficient way for shippers to validate the low-oxygen conditions for customers, let alone importers with phytosanitary requirements for insect control. Technically and economically viable, verifiable, and preferably traceable technologies are critically needed before low-oxygen storage and packaging approaches can be used for export to most countries.
Currently, the existing low-oxygen technologies do not incorporate digital mapping or official record-keeping during the packing or storage process, so there is no non-invasive manner to verify the oxygen content over time within the gas-impermeable liners and/or confirm seal integrity. This limits the ability to verify that a low-oxygen environment has been maintained at a specific oxygen level over a certain period of time, which would be necessary to ensure the conditions were met to act as a phytosanitary treatment. Counties such as India, Korea, and Japan require phytosanitary treatments, such as fumigation, for post-harvest pest management before many types of U.S. tree nuts can be imported into the countries. Additionally, buyers in other markets also request pest management treatments as a condition of sale in commercial transactions.
Award amount
Up to $2,000,000
Total program funding: $2,000,000
Eligibility
This opportunity is available to U.S. academic institutions, state governments, nonprofits with or without 501(c)(3) designation, U.S. trade associations, U.S. agricultural cooperatives, international organizations, foreign entities, and any other entity including private sector businesses.All applicants must have an active registration in the U.S. Government System for Award Management (www.sam.gov) before the date of award. Applicants with inactive, expired, pending, or excluded listings will be deemed ineligible. Exceptions, waivers, or extensions will not be considered. More information about SAM.gov registration can be found in this document in Section 9, Other Information.
This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) supports research to develop, implement, monitor, and evaluate technology-driven and cost-effective tools that reduce the global human rabies burden. It also measures progress toward canine rabies elimination, with an emphasis on high-burden countries. Priority research areas include:
Electronic systems for tracking human and dog rabies vaccinations. Managing human rabies exposure investigations. Enhancing rabies laboratory information management systems. Modeling the economic impact of dog-mediated rabies interventions. Estimating rabies-susceptible dog populations. The research is intended to generate data-driven strategies that help accelerate progress toward global canine rabies elimination and protect public health.
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) intends to publish a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) to solicit applications for Regional Medical Libraries of the Network of the National Library of Medicine (NNLM).
Established in 1965 and organized geographically across the United States and its territories, the NNLM promotes and supports the initiatives, products, and services of the NLM and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Over the years, the network has expanded its impact through strategic partnerships with a broad array of member organizations, including health sciences, hospital, academic, and public libraries; health professionals; data organizations; and community-based groups.
The NNLM’s core mission is to enable the effective use of - and contribution to - health information and data made available by the NLM and NIH. The network achieves this by providing professional development for librarians and information specialists, and by supporting access to health information and outreach through libraries and community organizations. A central emphasis of the NNLM is increasing awareness of and engagement with NIH programs and resources.
While the NNLM has traditionally focused on promoting NLM-specific products, it is now poised to expand its reach across the broader NIH community. The network will play a vital role in disseminating research findings, fostering community engagement and partnerships, and supporting participation in local clinical research. In doing so, the NNLM will enhance public understanding of NIH’s contributions and increase the use of NIH-supported information and data resources.
The NNLM consists of three major components: 1) the Network Coordinating Center (NCC), 2) Regional Medical Libraries (RMLs), and 3) the Network Training Center (NTC). This announcement specifically pertains to RMLs, with companion NOFOs forthcoming for the NCC and NTC.
The RMLs will be responsible for generating and maintaining an active, engaged membership of organizations focused on biomedical health information and data dissemination, training, and literacy. The RMLs will work with the NCC and NTC to promote the activities, products, and services of the NLM as well as the NIH. The RMLs will work with the NCC to evaluate progress, performance, and impact of the Network, including the use of common metrics (standardized measures collected and reported), as well as proposed site-specific goals. The RMLs will collaborate with the NTC to identify training needs and execute professional development or information access programming.
The RMLs should have strong competencies in building and managing long-term partnerships with groups and organizations, deep understanding of biomedical information and data sciences, and institutional connections with a health science library.
Grant authority that allows NLM to forecast this opportunity is as follows: Medical Library Assistance Act of 1965 (MLAA, P.L. 89-291).
Arts and CultureLiteracy and LibrariesHealth and Medical
The purpose of the California Forest Improvement Program (CFIP) is to encourage private and public investment in, and improved management of, California forest lands and resources, to ensure adequate high quality timber supplies, related employment and other economic benefits, and the protection, maintenance, and enhancement of a productive and stable forest resource system for the benefit of present and future generations.
The program scope includes the improvement of all forest resources including fish and wildlife habitat, and soil and water quality. Cost-share assistance is provided to private and public ownerships containing 20 to 5,000 acres of forest land. Cost-shared activities include: Preparation of a Forest Management Plan by a Registered Professional Forester (RPF) and RPF Supervision of the following: Reforestation, Site Preparation, Trees and Planting, Tree Shelters, Stand Improvement, Pre-commercial Thinning or Release, Pruning, Follow-up (includes mechanical, herbicide and/or slash disposal follow-up), Forestland conservation practices / fish and wildlife habitat improvement Broadcast/controlled/cultural burning is not eligible for CFIP cost share.
Farming and AgricultureArts and CultureEnvironment and Conservation
The proposed international hybrid Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) will link non-research implementation with targeted research that advances CDC's mission to address antimicrobial resistance (AR) across multiple bacterial and fungal pathogens, healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), and emerging infectious disease threats including viral pathogens across healthcare, community, and environmental settings in low and middle-income countries. AR and HAI remain urgent global threats, with substantial mortality and economic impact. Building on CDC's Global AR Laboratory and Response Network, HAI surveillance and prevention networks, and other collaborating programs, the NOFO seeks to strengthen detection, surveillance, prevention, and response systems to reduce illness and death, stop the spread of AR, protect healthcare workers and patients, and lower costs through robust infection prevention and control (IPC) and antimicrobial stewardship.