; (3) develop recommendations for new initiatives, including financing mechanisms and technical assistance opportunities, to specifically serve small farms, ranches, and forest operations relating to production, conservation, business planning, land access, and other issues, as determined by the Secretary; (4) make recommendations to Department agencies and offices and other Federal agencies on tracking small farm, ranch, or forest operation data, including demographics and program participation rates; (5) propose research agendas on topics that are of special interest to small farms, ranches, and forest operations; (6) provide or coordinate technical assistance through the Department or through cooperative agreements with other entities to operators of small farms, ranches, and forest operations to enable those operators to access the full complement of Department grant, cost-share, and loan programs; (7) implement program directly or through cooperative agreements with other entities to provide grants of not more than $25,000 to operators of small farms, ranches, and forest operations for— (A) equipment and infrastructure repairs and upgrades; (B) uninsured losses; (C) business planning and market development assistance; (D) conservation practice adoption; (E) down payments for land acquisition; and (F) such other purposes as the Secretary determines to be appropriate; (8) operate a hotline through which operators of small farms, ranches, and forest operations can anonymously report problems that the operators encounter in attempts to access Department programs