USDA considers BPA for IT, professional support services

The Agriculture Department plans to award a multiple-award blanket purchase agreement for land grant, data and IT management services.

The Agriculture Department plans to award a multiple-award blanket purchase agreement for land grant, data and IT management services.

The National Institute of Food and Agriculture supporting research, education, and extension programs in the Land-Grant University System and other partner organizations.

USDA’s tentative BPA would support the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) IT office in four task areas:

  • Support for food and agricultural sciences, mission focus areas and strategic goals
  • Technology integration, infrastructure protection and information assurance
  • Software development
  • Enterprise data management and quality management

In addition, the BPA would have professional support and services on land grants management, data management, IT application development, IT system administration support, IT security, management support services, general administrative support, and data analysis and processing.

The NIFA’s IT office’s duties are changing from maintaining transaction and management information systems. The office is now recognizing the linkages between the agency’s business units and the tools and software provided by the office.

The USDA released its statement of objectives April 2. Responses are due by April 21.