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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 161 / Tuesday, August 24, 2021 / Notices
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and applied research that support business development, including support to forming a joint marketing effort by a group of producers, such as a farmers market, roadside stand, community-supported agriculture, and online sales Market development and outreach services, such as marketing plans, branding, and customer identification including support to forming a joint marketing effort by a group of producers, such as a farmers market, roadside stand, community-supported agriculture, and online sales Grants may be made to local governments, State governments, Federally-Recognized Tribes, institutions of higher education, nonprofit corporations, and for-profit corporations. Individuals are not eligible to apply. Note that applicant organizations must be prepared to act as Centers to provide Producer Services.
Grant awards are not made directly to businesses or agricultural producers to market value-added products.
This notice and listening session requests information on RBCS plan to consider ways to streamline the application process, clarify eligibility requirements and reduce the burden for meeting them, revise the merit review process, and assess program performance. The public input provided in response to this notice from interested stakeholders will advise RBCS on this plan.
Instructions Response to this notice is voluntary.
Each individual or institution is requested to submit only one response as directed in the ADDRESSES section of this notice. Submissions must not exceed 10 pages and fonts must be 12
point or larger, with a page number provided on each page. Responses should include the name of the persons or organizations filing the comment. Comments containing references, studies, research, and other empirical data that are not widely published should include copies or electronic links of the referenced materials. Comments containing profanity, vulgarity, threats, or other inappropriate language or content will not be considered. Comments submitted in response to this notice are subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act FOIA 5 U.S.C. 552.
Responses to this notice may also be posted, without change, on a Federal website.
Therefore, we request that no business proprietary information, copyrighted information, or personally identifiable information be submitted in response to
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this notice. In accordance with FAR 52
2153b responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract.
Additionally, the U.S. Government will not pay for response preparation or for the use of any information contained in the response.
To inform the Federal governments decision-making process, RBCS now seeks public input on the following questions:
1. RBCS is seeking feedback on the definitions needed to assist applicants and recipients with understanding program requirements.
a. Are there any additional terms that we could define to improve applicant and/or recipient understanding of the program requirements?
b. Applicants are required to demonstrate that the Centers Board of Directors has representatives from the two general agricultural organizations in the State with the greatest number of members. How should we define a general agricultural organization?
c. Applicants are required to demonstrate that the Centers Board of Directors has representatives from four entities representing commodities. How should we define these types of organizations?
d. Product development is not identified in the authorizing statute for the program as an eligible use of funds.
However, RBCS has previously determined that many components of product development are allowable because those components are related to the types of services that are eligible for the program. If RBCS continues to allow product development as an eligible use of funds, how should we define it?
2. RBCS is seeking feedback on how applicants can demonstrate that they meet the eligibility requirements for the program. Most of the requirements listed below are statutory, so they cannot be changed, but we can consider alternatives to how and when we ask applicants to demonstrate that they meet them.
a. The authorizing statute requires that eligible applicants have provided Producer Services. How can applicants demonstrate that they meet this requirement? How many years of experience are appropriate to show that an organization has experience in providing Producer Services? Note that Producer Services is currently defined at 7 CFR 4284.1004.
b. The authorizing statute for the program requires that applicants that do not have experience in providing Producer Services demonstrate their capability to provide Producer Services.

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How can these applicants demonstrate their capability?
c. The authorizing statute requires that an eligible applicant outlines the support for the entity in the agricultural community. How can applicants demonstrate that they meet this requirement?
d. The authorizing statute requires that an eligible applicant outlines a plan that describes the technical and other expertise of the entity. How do you think this technical and other expertise is different from demonstrating experience in providing Producer Services or the capability to provide Producer Services? How can applicants demonstrate that they meet this requirement?
e. All types of organizations are eligible to apply for the AIC program.
However, these organizations still need to demonstrate that they are legal entities that are authorized to receive an award. How can applicants demonstrate that they meet this requirement?
f. The authorizing statute requires that a Center has a Board of Directors that includes representatives from the following organizations:
General agricultural organizations with the greatest and second greatest number of members in the State in which the eligible entity is located;
The department of agriculture, or similar State department or agency or a State legislator, of the State in which the eligible entity is located; and Four entities representing commodities produced in the State.
How can applicants demonstrate that they meet this requirement?
g. The authorizing statute requires that the Center has its own Board of Directors. What should the role of the Board of Directors be?
h. The program has previously required applicants to provide certain financial information, such as financial statements and audits, so that RBCS
could assess the applicants financial capability to administer the funds as well as meet the requirement established by 2 CFR 200.206 to conduct a risk evaluation. What criteria, information, or threshold should RBCS
consider when assessing the financial capabilities of an applicant?
3. RBCS is seeking feedback on project eligibility requirements. Some of these requirements are statutory, while others are targeted toward improving the projects chances of success.
a. The statute does not define a minimum or maximum period of performance. Based on previous experiences with recipients, RBCS has discovered that first-time recipients need much more than a one-year period
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