Arizona Department Of Agriculture

Arizona Department Of Agriculture, a U.S. state government entity, is a federal grant recipient that conducts agricultural pest surveillance, animal health disease monitoring, food safety inspection, and specialty crop development across Arizona as prime recipient under cooperative agreements and block grants from USDA and other federal agencies. The department operates almost entirely as a prime recipient (99% of awards) across 279 federal awards, competing in full-and-open procurements without set-aside designations typical of private vendors.

The department's federal footprint is heavily concentrated in USDA cooperative agreements. The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) funds 184 awards covering year-round surveillance and quarantine management for invasive pests threatening Arizona's nursery, citrus, date palm, and field-crop industries. Representative APHIS work includes a $150,000 cooperative agreement for the 2026 Arizona Nursery and Retail Plants Pest Survey (CFDA 10.025) conducting targeted inspections at high-risk facilities for detection of brown garden snail, giant African snail, rose rosette disease, Japanese beetle, brown marmorated stink bug, emerald ash borer, and exotic scales; a $464,410 award for the 2026 Arizona Citrus Health Survey detecting Citrus Greening Disease and Asian Citrus Psyllid across approximately 12,000 acres of commercial citrus; a $184,950 Animal Disease Traceability system award managing RFID cattle identification and veterinary certificate systems to prevent transboundary disease incursion from Mexico; and multiple $117,078 awards for commodity-specific animal disease surveillance across avian, bovine, ovine, cervid, and swine operations. APHIS also funds emergency response work including $1.3 million in 2024 highly pathogenic avian influenza response costs and drone program development for thermal imaging and LIDAR-enabled disease assessment.

The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) funds 35 awards across specialty crop development block grants (CFDA 10.170) totaling $1.350 billion across three fiscal years (2025–2028), with sub-awards to the University of Arizona and White Mountain Apache Tribe for research on soil health, insecticide resistance, biological soil amendments, virus mitigation in melons, Aspergillus niger in dates, and Produce Safety Rule training. AMS also funds poultry and shell egg grading services and country-of-origin compliance reviews at retail stores. The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) provides $1.372 million annually under the Cooperative Agreements with States for Intrastate Meat and Poultry Inspection program (CFDA 10.475) to operate state meat and poultry inspection systems. The Department of Interior Fish and Wildlife Service funds endangered plant species research and monitoring through project grants (CFDA 15.615) including $201,887.71 for rare plant conservation surveys and $136,454.31 for seed collection and habitat modeling. The Environmental Protection Agency Region 9 awards $352,050 over three years (CFDA 66.605, October 2025–September 2028) for pesticide compliance assurance, applicator certification and training, field programs addressing endangered species and water quality, and outreach to farm workers in pesticide-intensive communities.

The department also serves as a sub-recipient on specialty crop research initiatives. A sub-award from the University of California Office of the President (dated April 2024) tasks AZDA with outreach to Arizona's food supplier constituency (producers, processors, distributors, food hubs) to promote Southwest USDA Regional Food Business Center grants and activities. Two sub-awards from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (dated March 2024) involve AZDA participation in the Agricultural Best Management Practices (AgBMP) program managing PM10 emissions control from crop operations in nonattainment areas.

Recent activity shows a steady award cadence—14 awards in 2022, 15 in 2023, 17 in 2024, 12 in 2025, and 7 in the first half of 2026—with 16 awards reaching completion within the next twenty-four months, creating recompete opportunities in pest surveillance, animal disease traceability, and specialty crop initiatives. The combined obligated dollars across all awards total $141.6 million against a combined potential value of $118,000, reflecting the awards portfolio's documentation of invoiced federal expenditures against small ceiling amounts typical of annual renewal cooperative agreements in agricultural surveillance and inspection work.