Dairy Business Innovation Initiatives Program (DBI) Fiscal Year 2024

Background
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), requests applications for the fiscal year (FY) 2024 only from the existing four initiatives of the Dairy Business Innovation (DBI) Initiatives program: the California State University Fresno Foundation, the University of Tennessee, the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets, and the University of Wisconsin. These initiatives serve to diversify dairy product markets to reduce risk and develop higher value uses for dairy products, promote business development that diversifies farmer income through processing and marketing innovation, and encourage the use of regional milk production.

Grant Details
Initiatives must provide direct technical assistance and make subgrants to dairy businesses. This includes continuing their capacity to provide consultation and expertise necessary to advance the purpose and activities of the program and to distribute and track subawards to dairy businesses. Initiatives should also build on previous efforts to engage existing dairy industry resources, including dairy farm density and suitability, as well as activities conducted by dairy promotion and research programs. Initiatives may serve a certain product niche, such as specialty cheese, or serve dairy businesses with dairy products derived from the milk of a specific type of dairy animal.

Eligibility Requirements
Eligible applicants are current initiatives which were competitively selected to fulfill the purpose of the program. The eligible entities include The California State University Fresno Foundation (FY2021), The University of Tennessee (FY2019), The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets (FY2019), and The University of Wisconsin (FY2019). An applicant may subcontract or subaward with partners and collaborators. Only the applicant must meet the eligibility requirements listed in this RFA.

Period of Performance
Initiatives must perform project activities from FY 2024 through FY 2027. Each initiative is eligible to apply for funding for a duration of 36 months starting from September 30, 2024, to September 29, 2027.

Grant Value
Approximately $12 million will be available to fund applications under this solicitation and administer the program. The distribution of funds among initiatives is shown in Section 2.4.