USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) recently announced more than $5 million in grants to address air quality issues, including reducing agricultural atmospheric emissions and developing new mitigation practices.

"Agricultural producers need the most effective practices and technologies to prevent or mitigate greenhouse gases or other contributors to climate change," says Roger Beachy, USDA chief scientist and NIFA director. The research will build effective mitigation strategies and help farmers learn about and adopt best management practices that reduce agricultural emissions.

The grants are funded through NIFA's Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Air Quality program, which supports research, education and extension projects to enhance the effectiveness and productivity of U.S air quality research. These projects reflect the growing need to develop research-based information on air quality issues for developing effective mitigation strategies and best management practices to protect our natural resources and environment.

Projects funded in Fiscal Year 2009 include one that will develop a novel method for greenhouse gas measurement from farms, three projects that develop tools and models to better predict emissions and dispersion of particulate matter from animal production facilities and gain a better understanding of factors governing emissions that will help identify points of mitigation.

Learn more about the grants and see a list of universities and projects receiving funding at www.nifa.usda.gov/.