Deadline: 26 June 2020
The Technical Assistance for Specialty Crops (TASC) program is designed to assist U.S. organizations by providing funding for projects that seek to remove, resolve, or mitigate existing or potential sanitary, phytosanitary, or technical barriers that prohibit or threaten the export of U.S. specialty crops.
The TASC program is administered by personnel of the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) on behalf of the Commodity Credit Corporation.
Funding Information
- Total Award Funding: $9,000,000
- Estimated Funding per Award: Funding per award under TASC is anticipated to range from $5,000–$500,000 per eligible applicant, subject to programmatic approval, review, and available funding.
- Projected Number of Awards: 15–20 awards, subject to programmatic approval and available funding.
- Period of Performance Start Date(s): 02/01/2021.
- Period of Performance End Date(s): 03/01/2026.
Eligibility Criteria
- Any U.S. organization, government or private, with a demonstrated role or interest in exporting U.S. agricultural specialty crops may apply to the program.
- Government organizations consist of Federal, State, and local agencies. Private organizations may include non–profit trade associations, universities, agricultural cooperatives, state regional trade groups, and private companies.
- Foreign organizations, whether government or private, may participate as third parties in activities carried out by eligible organizations, but are not eligible for direct funding assistance through the program.
- Eligible Commodities: U.S. specialty crops. For the purposes of the TASC program, specialty crops are defined to include most cultivated plants, or the products thereof, produced in the U.S. except wheat, feed grains, oilseeds, cotton, rice, peanuts, sugar, and tobacco. Proposals that seek support for multiple U.S. specialty crops are also eligible.
- Eligible Markets: Proposals may target any foreign market, including single countries or reasonable regional groupings of countries.
- Eligible Activities: To be found eligible for consideration, TASC proposals must address the following criteria:
- Projects should identify and address a clear sanitary, phytosanitary, or technical barrier, either existing or potential, that prohibits or threatens the export of U.S. specialty crops;
- Projects should demonstrably benefit the represented industry rather than a specific company or brand;
- Projects must address barriers, either existing or potential, to exports of commercially available U.S. specialty crops;
- Projects should include an explanation as to what specifically could not be accomplished without Federal funding assistance and why the eligible organization(s) would be unlikely to carry out the project without such assistance; and
- Projects should include performance measures for quantifying progress and demonstrating results. In the development of performance measures, FAS believes the measures should meet the following criteria:
- Aligned: the indicator should, as closely as possible, measure exactly the relevant result.
- Clear: the indicator should be precise and unambiguous about what is being measured and how. There should be no doubt on how to measure or interpret the indicator.
- Quantifiable: the indicator(s) should sufficiently capture all the elements of a result.
- Include an identified methodology: the data can be obtained to inform the indicator in a timely and efficient manner and the data are of high quality.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=326993