U.S. Agency for International Development, M/OP/A/AOT, Room 1516, SA- 14, Washington, D.C. 20523-1425

F -- SUPPORT USE OF BIOLOGICAL PESTICIDES FOR THE CONTROL OF LOCUSTS/GRASSHOPPERS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA SOL RFA NO. M/OP-97-380 POC Contact Point, Grant Specialist, Dana Doo-Soghoian, (703) 875-1050. The United States Agency for International Development's (USAID) Africa Bureau, Office of Disaster Response Coordination (AFR/DRC)supports a program to enhance African national and regional capacities to develop and use biopesticides for the control of locust and grasshoppers (l/g) in a sustainable way without the requirement for technical assistance from external sources. This is a five-year program that will be funded annually subject to the availability of funds and subject to the grantee meeting the benchmarks outlined in the Program Description. Capacity-building of host country and/or regional institutions is extremely important for this program, and therefore, there must be an established link between the grantee and an African institution(s) before the grant is awarded. Although this grant may be viewed as a research grant to discover and develop pathogens that will control species of l/g, this is only a part of the activities. The Program is all encompassing and includes any activity necessaryto bring the biopesticides into use in sub-Saharan African countries. These activities include, but are not limited to host country registration, mass production in Africa by Africans, and commercialization either by the host country and/or the African private sector, as well as national/regional technical capacity building. USAID intends to negotiate a 5-year assistance award. The request for applications will be issued on or about 15 days from the date of this publication. The closing date will be on or about 60 days from the issuance date. Interested applicants may request a copy of RFA No. M/OP-97-380 by submitting a written request with three (3) self-addressed, self-adhesive mailing labels to the contact person named above. The preferred method of distribution of USAID procurement information is via the Internet or by request of an application on a 3.5" floppy disk (WordPerfect 5.1/5.2 format). This CBD notice can be viewed and downloaded using the Agency Web Site. The RFA, once issued, can be downloaded from the Agency web site. The Worldwide Web address is http://www.info.usaid.gov. Select Business and Procurement Opportunities from the home page, then "USAID Procurements." On the following screen, select "Download Available USAID Solicitations." The RFA can also be downloaded via Anonymous File Transfer Protocol (FTP). The FTP address is FTP.INFO.USAID.GOV. Logon using the user identification of "anonymous" and the password is your e-mail address. Look under the following directory for the RFA: pub/OP/RFA/MOP97380/mop97380.rfa. Receipt of this RFA through INTERNET must be confirmed by written notification to the contact person noted above. It is the responsibility of the recipient of this application document to ensure that it has been received from INTERNET in its entirety and USAID bears no responsibility for data errors resulting from transmission or conversion processes. All responsible sources may submit an application which shall be considered by USAID. No telephone requests for the application package will be accepted. Michael F. Walsh, Agreement Officer, M/OP/A/AOT, Room 1519, SA-14, (AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT), Washington, DC 20523-1425. (0072)

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