Georgia Department Of Agriculture

Georgia Department Of Agriculture, a U.S. state government entity and division of the State of Georgia, serves as a federal grant recipient conducting animal and plant health surveillance, food safety inspections, and agricultural regulatory enforcement across Georgia on behalf of civilian federal agencies. The agency operates 100% as a prime recipient across its federal footprint—no subrecipient activity—and competes for cooperative agreements and definitive contracts under full-and-open procurement, with no SBA set-asides.

The agency's federal mission concentrates on three regulatory and surveillance domains. Food safety and inspection work anchors the largest share: GDA conducts human and animal food inspections under FDA authority (definitive contracts for $841,906 animal food inspections through December 2031 and $678,041 human food inspections through March 2027), operates state meat and poultry inspection programs under cooperative agreements with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service (multiple awards totaling millions annually under CFDA 10.475 and 10.477 for federal assistance to state inspection programs), maintains manufactured food regulatory program standards and rapid-response food safety teams under FDA cooperative agreements, and operates food and animal feed laboratory services supporting an integrated food safety system under FDA funding (CFDA 93.103, $305,000 and $825,000 recent awards for laboratory flexible funding and animal feed regulatory standards). Animal and plant health surveillance forms the second major capability: GDA conducts national surveillance and response activities for brucellosis, scrapie, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cattle and swine; maintains animal disease traceability programs applying identification and tracking databases; performs exotic pest detection and eradication surveys (field crop pests, wood-boring beetles, spotted lanternfly, box tree moth, honey bee pests); manages imported fire ant quarantine compliance across nursery operations; and operates an animal feed audit program advancing from Phase II to Phase III with APHIS support. Agricultural market development and specialty crop competitiveness represent the third domain: GDA administers block grants from the Agricultural Marketing Service to enhance specialty crop marketing, research, and producer support (Specialty Crop Block Grants with awards including $1.51 million through September 2028), manages local food purchase assistance programs targeting socially disadvantaged producers, and compiles agricultural market information for national dissemination.

Customer concentration is pronounced within USDA. The Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service leads by award count (199 awards across cooperative agreements for animal disease surveillance, pest detection, and emergency response, including highly pathogenic avian influenza response funding), followed by the FDA (47 awards worth $10.2 million combined potential value for food inspections and laboratory work), the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (37 awards for specialty crop and market development grants), and the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (31 awards). Together these four agencies account for approximately 90% of recent award activity. FDA and FSIS awards, though fewer by count, anchor the largest potential values because meat and poultry inspection cooperative agreements carry million-dollar annual commitments ($3.1 million to $4.15 million recent awards for state inspection program operation under CFDA 10.475 and 10.477).

Activity has remained steady across the past five years (2022–2026: 21, 23, 17, 20, and 3 awards respectively, with 2026 data incomplete as of mid-July). Nineteen awards carrying combined potential value of $1.4 million complete within the next twenty-four months and face recompete. The agency operates within a single parent vehicle—Indefinite Delivery Contract 220004038—carrying one task order. GDA holds no named subcontractors in its prime footprint; the agency itself acts as the executing recipient on all awards, with occasional subawards to the University of Georgia, the Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health (BUGWOOD), and entities such as SES, Inc. for exercise planning or outreach support on APHIS-funded cooperative agreements.

GDA's federal role is structured around regulatory delegations from FDA and USDA that vest state inspection authority directly in the state agency rather than contracting it as a vendor service. The agency invoices $267.9 million in obligated dollars across the award portfolio—notably 2,332% of combined potential value, a signal that awards have been exercised, extended, and funded at high utilization rates over their lifecycle. This footprint positions GDA as a stable, mission-critical federal partner for food safety and agricultural pest management in the Southeast, with recurring annual funding cycles under cooperative agreements that renew each fiscal year across multiple USDA and FDA programs.