Federal Grant Opportunity: USDA to Invest $1 billion in Climate-Smart Commodities
By Cole Goodwin
Does your town, business, non-profit, or local government produce climate-smart commodities and have an idea for a climate-smart program that needs funding?
If so, you might want to check out this opportunity.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced it will invest $1 billion in partnerships to support climate-smart farmers, ranchers and forest landowners.
The new Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities federal grant opportunity will finance pilot projects that create market opportunities for U.S. agricultural and forestry products that use climate-smart practices and include innovative, cost-effective ways to measure and verify greenhouse gas benefits.
“Under the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA is engaged in a whole-of-government effort to combat the climate crisis and conserve and protect our nation’s lands, biodiversity and natural resources including our soil, air and water,” said a USDA press release. “Through conservation practices and partnerships, the USDA aims to enhance economic growth and create new streams of income for farmers, ranchers, producers and private foresters. Successfully meeting these challenges will require USDA and our agencies to pursue a coordinated approach alongside USDA stakeholders, including State, local and Tribal governments.”
The USDA said they are especially keen to fund rural and historically underserved communities, governments, businesses, and nonprofits.
“We want a broad array of agriculture and forestry to see themselves in this effort, including small and historically underserved producers as well as early adopters,” said Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) State Conservationist Ron Alvarado in Oregon.
What is a climate-smart commodity?
For the purposes of this funding opportunity, a climate-smart commodity is defined as: an agricultural commodity that is produced using agricultural (farming, ranching or forestry) practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions or sequester carbon.
Funding will be provided to partners through the USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation for pilot projects to provide incentives to producers and landowners to:
Implement climate-smart production practices, activities, and systems on working lands.
Measure/quantify, monitor and verify the carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG) benefits associated with those practices.
Develop markets and promote the resulting climate-smart commodities.
How to Apply
The primary applicant must be an entity, not an individual. A range of public and private entities may apply, including:
County, city or township governments
Special district governments
State governments
Small businesses
For profit organizations other than small businesses
Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized)
Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) (other than institutions of higher education)
Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) (other than institutions of higher education)
Private institutions of higher education, or
Public and State-controlled institutions of higher education.
Proposals must provide plans to:
Pilot implementation of climate-smart agriculture and/or forestry practices on a large-scale, including meaningful involvement of small and/or historically underserved producers.
Quantify, monitor, report and verify climate results.
Develop markets and promote climate-smart commodities generated as a result of project activities.
Highly competitive projects will include agricultural and forestry practices or combinations of practices, and/or practice enhancements that provide greenhouse gas benefits and/or carbon sequestration, including but not limited to:
Cover crops
Low-till or no-till
Nutrient management
Enhanced efficiency fertilizers
Manure management
Feed management to reduce enteric emissions
Buffers, wetland and grassland management, and tree planting on working lands
Agroforestry and afforestation on working lands
Afforestation/reforestation and sustainable forest management
Planting for high carbon sequestration rate
Maintaining and improving forest soil quality
Increase on-site carbon storage through forest stand management
Alternate wetting and drying on rice fields
Climate-smart pasture practices, such as prescribed grazing or legume interseeding
Soil amendments, like biochar
Grant Application Deadlines
Funding will be provided in two funding pools, and applicants must submit their applications via Grants.gov by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time by:
April 8, 2022, for the first funding pool (proposals from $5 million to $100 million). These applications should include large-scale pilot projects that emphasize the greenhouse gas benefits of climate-smart commodity production and include direct, meaningful benefits to a representative cross-section of production agriculture, including small and/or historically underserved producers.
May 27, 2022, for the second funding pool (proposals from $250,000 to $4,999,999). The second round of funding is limited to particularly innovative pilot projects. These projects should place an emphasis on:
Enrollment of small and/or underserved producers, and/or
Monitoring, reporting and verification activities developed at minority-serving institutions.
Note: The USDA is committed to equity in program delivery and is specifically seeking proposals from entities serving all types of producers, including small or historically underserved producers. Providing sufficient incentives to encourage producer participation and generating both verifiable greenhouse gas reduction and carbon sequestration benefits are critical to project success and will be considered in the evaluation criteria.
To learn more about this federal grant opportunity click here.
To learn more about USDA climate solutions click here.
