SACRAMENTO – The California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Fertilizer Research and Education Program, or FREP, is now accepting concept proposals for the 2019 grant cycle.

FREP’s competitive grant program funds research that advances the agronomic and environmental performance of fertilizing materials.

The 2019 request for proposals, or RFP, includes several initiatives put forth by the department to help effectively manage nitrogen fertilizers in agriculture.

This year’s priorities include: technical education, demonstrating and/or validating management practices that optimize nutrient and irrigation management, addressing barriers to adoption of management practices, filling knowledge gaps in nitrogen management for specific crops, performing research on the role of organic input materials in soil nutrient management, and investigating and understanding mitigation strategies for nitrogen loss.

Applicants are invited to submit two-page concept proposals to FREP by Thursday, January 31, 2019. Concepts submitted should be aligned with at least one of the identified priority research areas.

Further information on the 2019 FREP request for concept proposals, including timelines, application criteria, priority research areas, and examples of successful proposals, are available on the Grant Program web page at www.cdfa.ca.gov/is/ffldrs/frep/CompetitiveGrantProgram.html.

All concept proposals will be reviewed by the Fertilizer Inspection Advisory Board’s Technical Advisory Subcommittee, or TASC. Concept proposals that are selected by the TASC will be invited for development into full project proposals.

Since 1990, FREP has funded more than 230 research projects, investing over 17 million dollars in research and outreach projects focusing on California’s important and environmentally sensitive cropping systems.

A database of completed and ongoing research is available on the FREP Research web page at www.cdfa.ca.gov/go/FREPresearch.

For more information, please send email inquiries to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..