USDA Opens Grants for Invasive Catfish Processing

Sep 16, 2026
By Farms.com

New funding aims to boost seafood processing and support rural economies

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced a new $6 million funding opportunity to support seafood processors that handle invasive wild-caught catfish. The initiative is designed to help remove invasive fish species from waterways while creating new business opportunities for fishermen, processors, and rural communities.

The funding will be provided through USDA Rural Development's Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program (MPPEP). The program is intended to strengthen processing capacity, improve market access, and support economic growth in areas that depend on fishing and seafood industries.

“Under the leadership of President Trump, the USDA is actively implementing actionable and innovative solutions like this one that solve serious challenges,” said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins. “By investing in seafood processors, we can help our hardworking watermen remove invasive catfish from our waterways while strengthening the future of our rural communities.”

The grants are expected to benefit watermen, fishermen, seafood suppliers, and processing businesses by creating stronger markets for invasive wild-caught catfish. As processing capacity grows, more fish can be removed from affected waterways, helping to reduce environmental pressure on native species and aquatic habitats.

“Wild‑caught catfish processors on the Eastern Shore are playing a vital role in transforming an invasive species challenge into a growing commercial market that supports rural economies,” said Maryland Representative Andy Harris.

He added, “By developing processing capacity for wild‑caught catfish, these businesses contribute to job creation, expand opportunities for watermen and seafood suppliers, and strengthen the broader food and agricultural supply chain. I am grateful that this USDA grant program has enabled investment opportunities like this one that support this important effort.”

Through the new funding round, eligible businesses can receive grants ranging from $50,000 to $2 million. The funding can be used for a variety of projects that increase processing capacity and efficiency.

Approved projects may include:

Building new processing facilities

Modernizing existing plants

Purchasing processing equipment

Adopting new technologies

Expanding production capabilities

Training and developing workers

The goal is to help independent seafood processors become more efficient while addressing the challenge posed by invasive catfish populations. Increased processing capacity can create a more reliable market for harvested fish while supporting long-term industry growth.

A wide range of organizations may apply for funding. Eligible applicants include for-profit businesses, nonprofit organizations, producer-owned cooperatives, corporations, certified benefit corporations, Tribal governments and entities, as well as state and local government organizations.

To qualify, applicants must be independently owned and operated if they are private entities. All applicants must be domestically owned, and their processing facilities must be located and operating within the United States or its territories. Businesses must also have more than one year of operating history and be actively involved in processing invasive wild-caught catfish.

Recipients will be required to provide a matching contribution equal to 20% of the total project cost. This cost-share requirement is intended to support strong investments while encouraging long-term business growth.

USDA officials believe the program will strengthen the seafood industry while improving environmental conditions in affected waterways. By increasing demand for invasive catfish products, the initiative can create sustainable market opportunities and encourage the removal of harmful fish populations.

Applications for the funding opportunity must be submitted through www.Grants.gov no later than 11:59 p.m. on December 7, 2026. Full eligibility rules, application requirements, and program details are available through the federal grants system.

The new investment reflects USDA's continued effort to support rural businesses, strengthen food supply chains, and develop innovative solutions that benefit both the environment and local economies.

For more information about eligibility and requirements, visit www.Grants.gov.

Photo Credit: gettyimages-d-keine

Video: The 15-Year Bet Behind Every New Variety!

Canada is trying to decide how much agricultural research capacity it can afford to lose. Brian Rossnagel believes the better question is whether the country can afford to rebuild it.

The longtime barley and oat breeder makes the case with a simple fact about his profession: the consequences of today’s decisions may not become visible for 10 or 15 years.

“Pick the right parents. That’s the biggest thing,” Rossnagel says. “If you pick the wrong parents, you’re not going to get anywhere—and you don’t know that until 10 years, 15 years later.”

That warning carries particular weight as Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada moves to reduce spending and streamline parts of its science operations. The department’s 2026–27 plan anticipates the loss of approximately 665 positions by 2028–29 and says some research will be reduced where capacity exists in academia or industry. AAFC says the changes will make its science operations more cost-effective over the long term.

For Canada’s seed industry, Rossnagel’s career illustrates what is at stake.

This fall, the retired University of Saskatchewan breeder will be inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame. During his 35-year career at the Crop Development Centre, he helped develop more than 100 barley and oat varieties, including CDC Austenson—one of Western Canada’s most widely grown feed barleys. His induction recognizes not only those varieties, but the collaboration and research system that made them possible.

Rossnagel is quick to emphasize that none of it was the work of one person.

“The first thing I thought about was all the other people who contributed to whatever success I and my program had over the years,” he says. “We know that it’s not an individual who does this. It’s a group—a team.”

That team extends well beyond the breeder whose name appears beside a variety. It includes technicians, pathologists, quality specialists, statisticians, regional testing sites, seed growers and industry partners. It also includes the breeders who came before and those who will carry the germplasm forward.

CDC Fraser barley, for example, moved through three breeding careers. Its parents came from Brian Harvey’s program. Rossnagel advanced the material after Harvey retired, and Aaron Beattie later guided it through registration and release.

That kind of handoff is normal in plant breeding. The person who makes the original cross may never see the resulting variety reach farmers.

It also explains why lost research capacity cannot simply be switched back on when budgets improve.

“If you shut it off, it’s very, very difficult—and particularly costly—to start it up again,” Rossnagel says. “If you have to start from scratch, it’s going to be at least 10 years before anybody notices whether you’re getting anything done or not.”

The concern is not simply how many experimental lines Canada can process. Modern equipment, statistical tools and genetic technologies allow today’s breeding programs to evaluate tens of thousands of lines—far more than Rossnagel could handle when he entered the field in the early 1970s.

But efficiency and automation do not generate every idea.

“If you pare back down, and instead of having six or seven individual scientists concentrating on wheat breeding, you go down and say three people could handle all this, well, that’s half the ideas gone,” he says. “Particularly if you happen to lose the three people who had the really neat and innovative ideas, boy, that’s a problem.”

It is a timely distinction for Canadian agriculture. Consolidating programs may preserve the volume of material moving through a system, at least initially. It may not preserve the diversity of thinking, regional knowledge or willingness to pursue unconventional crosses.

That regional knowledge matters because Canadian agriculture is not one uniform production environment. A variety suited to southern Alberta may face different disease, moisture and maturity pressures than one grown in Manitoba, Ontario or Atlantic Canada.

“Agriculture is applied biology,” Rossnagel says. “Biology, all around the Earth, moves from the poles to the equator. It does not move from Newfoundland to B.C. like politics do.”