The National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is an agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), part of the executive branch of the Federal Government. Congress created NIFA through the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008. NIFA replaced the former Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES), which had been in existence since 1994.
NIFA is one of four USDA agencies that make up its Research, Education, and Economics (REE)mission area. The other three agencies are:
Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
Economics Research Service (ERS)
National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS)
The USDA-REE agencies provide federal leadership in creating and disseminating knowledge spanning the biological, physical, and social sciences related to agricultural research, economic analysis, statistics, extension, and higher education.