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The National Clean Plant Network (NCPN) – Farm Bill Section 10202
The Farm Bill – H.R. 6124 Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 – became law in June 2008. Section 10202 directs the USDA Secretary of Agriculture to establish the “National Clean Plant Network” (NCPN), a program under which a partnership of clean plant centers is organized for diagnostic and pathogen elimination services to produce clean propagative plant material and maintain blocks of pathogen-tested plant materials in sites located throughout the United States. Clean plant material may then be made available to States for certified clean plant programs and to private nurseries and producers. In carrying out the NCPN, USDA shall consult with State departments of agriculture, land grant universities, and non land grant colleges of agriculture. Additionally, to the extent practicable, and with appropriate State and industry input, NCPN shall use existing Federal or State facilities to serve as clean plant centers.
NCPN – A Brief Program History |
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At its core, the NCPN is a collaborative effort among three USDA agencies; the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) for quarantine and regulatory programs, the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) for technology and germplasm issues, and the National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) for outreach and partnership initiatives. The network is administered nationally by an 8 member NCPN Governing Board (NCPN-GB).
As a concept, however, the NCPN began in November 2006 when a steering committee, with representatives from the nursery industry, the grower community, the National Plant Board (NPB) and other state regulatory agencies, the land-grant university system, and USDA was formed to review existing “clean plant programs”, prioritize a list of specialty crops for funding, and propose an NCPN implementation process.
A national workshop sponsored by APHIS at Riverdale, Maryland in May 2007 was held to implement the NCPN and introduce the concept to a broader stakeholder base. This workshop developed the NCPN mission and vision statements and initiated drafting an NCPN strategic plan.
Basic to the NCPN concept are stakeholder driven, specialty crop focused, clean plant governing bodies composed of interested state, university, association, and industry partners. In 2007-2010 stakeholders representing fruit trees (pome and stone fruits), grapes, berries (strawberries, blueberries/cranberries, and cane fruit), citrus, and hops worked to form NCPN recognized governing bodies entrusted with prioritizing, harmonizing, and networking clean plant activities for their specialty crop groups under the NCPN banner.
The NCPN held general meetings in Washington, DC in March 2009 and in Davis, CA in May 2010. Highlights of these meetings included clean plant program progress reports, an introduction of a draft NCPN business plan, the installation of the NCPN Governing Board, discussions on NCPN Farm Bill program funding strategies, talks on clean plant center long-term sustainability, and the establishment of a comprehensive NCPN education, extension, and outreach program. At the 2009 meeting, the NCPN Federal partners signed a Memorandum of Understanding, setting the programs cornerstone.
NCPN Mission |
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The NCPN provides high quality asexually propagated plant material free of targeted plant pathogens and pests that cause economic loss to protect the environment and ensure the global competitiveness of specialty crop producers.
NCPN Vision |
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The NCPN’s regional centers of excellence are recognized leaders in the introduction of the highest quality, regionally adapted, true-to-type propagative plant materials that are free of targeted plant pathogens and pests, thus promoting a vigorous commercial environment and the opportunity for international trade while protecting the environment of North America. Translational research, education and extension initiatives are fully funded to maintain the network’s high quality collections and strengthen its services. Industry, research and regulatory communities collaborate to ensure an abundant supply of healthy specialty crops. The economic, environmental and social sustainability of specialty crop industries and the improved economies of the communities that depend on these industries are the ultimate impacts of the NCPN’s robust service delivery.
NCPN Program Strategies |
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The draft NCPN business plan outlines five strategies and associated goals that are central to NCPN program implementation and ultimately to project funding:
- Organization, Governance, and Structure
- Program Operations
- Methods and Technologies Development
- Extension, Education, and Outreach
- Program Performance, Quality Assurance, and Review
NCPN General Information |
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Additional information about NCPN can be obtained by viewing the following documents:
- Farm Bill 2008 – Section 10202 “National Clean Plant Network”
- Draft NCPN Strategic Plan (May 2007 version)
- Draft NCPN Business Plan (March 2009 version)
- NCPN Federal Memorandum of Understanding MOU (Signed March 26, 2009)
- Draft NCPN Program Fact Sheet (November 2010 Version)
NCPN Cooperative Agreements Program
There is an important development affecting Grants.gov beginning May 23, 2012. In order to submit an application through Grants.gov for NCPN funding you must be ‘registered’ in Grants.gov, which currently includes registration in the Central Contractor Registry (CCR). The CCR will be going down on May 23, 2012 and will not return into service until the afternoon of May 29, 2012. Grants.gov will be open during the CCR down-time, but any new CCR registrations must be completed before May 23, 2012. The deadline for submitting proposals to NCPN for consideration this year is May 25, 2012 (Friday) 5:00 pm 'east'. So please note that anyone applying for NCPN funding via Grants.gov must have a current CCR registration before May 23, 2012. NCPN has decided that the deadline for submitting proposals to NCPN will not change and remains May 25, 2012, (Friday) by 5:00 pm ‘east’.
IMPORTANT SUGGESTION: If you run into submission problems because of the CCR system down-time, as a backup process for this year (as also permitted by the NCPN RFA) you may want to consider also submitting a back-up copy of your full application packet as a scanned or other formatted submission to us directly at NCPN. You may do this by several means:
- By attachment to an e-mail sent to:
NCPN@aphis.usda.gov and copy to Erich.S.Rudyj@aphis.usda.gov - By Express Mail or regular post to the address as mentioned here:
Ms. Tammy Kolt, Administrative Support
National Clean Plant Network
USDA, APHIS, PPQ, Plant Health Programs (PHP)
4700 River Road – Unit 60,
Room 4A.03.13
Riverdale, MD 20737
Phone: (301) 851-2160
In both ‘back-up’ cases above, the e-mail submission or other mail submissions must be ‘postmarked’ not later than May 25, 2012 at 5:00 pm ‘eastern’ time.
In FY 2009, NCPN initiated its Cooperative Agreement program by supporting 5 clean plant centers covering fruit trees and grapes. The program was expanded in FY 2010 to support 16 clean plant centers covering fruit trees and grapes as well as citrus, berries, and hops. The program is repeated again in FY 2011 with the issuance in May, 2011 of NCPN's 3rd competitive Request for Applications (RFA) which is available here:
- FY 2012 NCPN Cooperative Agreements Program Announcement
- Link to the USDA/APHIS Agreements Service Center web site
- Direct link to Grants.gov NCPN Cooperative Agreements Program Announcement
NCPN Governing Board (NCPN-GB) Meeting Schedule for FY 2011
Additional information about the meetings schedule of the NCPN-GB can be obtained by viewing the following document:
- NCPN-GB Meeting Schedule for FY 2011
Links to NCPN Internet Resources |
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The Stakeholder Driven NCPN web site at the University of California – Davis
Contact Us Email Address |
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