Grants

The Office of Outreach and Partnerships Division (OPD) within the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provides leadership and funding to ensure that all programs and services are made accessible to all NRCS customers, fairly and equitably, with emphasis on reaching the underserved and socially disadvantaged farmers or ranchers and landowners. In this Request for Applications (RFA), NRCS requests applications for four OPD priority areas through the Racial Equity and Justice Conservation Cooperative Agreements. The goal of this outreach is for NRCS in collaboration with partners to expand the delivery of conservation assistance to historically underserved farmers and ranchers, including socially disadvantaged, limited resource, beginning, tribal and veteran. Proposals should support activities that introduce the concepts of climate-smart agriculture and to assist producers with planning and implementation of conservation practices and principles.

The new Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities 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. USDA is now accepting project applications for fiscal year 2022.

The EQIP National Water Quality Initiative will assist producers to address high-priority water resource concerns in watersheds identified as impaired by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This strategic approach will leverage funds and provide streamlined assistance to help individual agricultural producers take needed actions to reduce the flow of sediment, nutrients and other runoff into impaired waterways.

The primary goal of the UAIP projects is to support the development of urban agriculture and innovative production. The UAIP grants being made available for application under this NFO support planning and implementation activities. Planning activities will initiate, develop, or support the efforts of farmers, gardeners, citizens, government officials, schools, members of tribal communities, and other stakeholders in areas where access to fresh foods are limited or unavailable. Implementation activities will accelerate existing and emerging models of urban and/or innovative agricultural practices that serve multiple farmers or gardeners. Innovation may include new and emerging, as well as indigenous or non-traditional agricultural practices.

Grants can include Planning or Implementation activities:

Planning Activities
Planning activities may include:

• assessing community needs within the local food system;
• researching how food is grown, distributed, or marketed and/or recommending safe growing practices such as soil tests and environmental assessments.
• evaluating how urban agriculture and innovative production can address issues of food access, nutrition, education, conservation, and economic development.
• creating partnerships to improve growing, distributing and marketing of nutritious food;
• conducting business planning, feasibility studies, and other strategies, such as community resource development;
• developing local policy on zoning laws supporting urban agriculture and innovative production; and/or
• creating educational materials and programs that increase knowledge about food and agriculture and encourage careers in urban agriculture and innovative production;

Implementation Activities
Implementation activities may include:

• increasing food production
• promoting agricultural businesses
• providing mentoring, job training, and resources for underserved populations;
• implementing best practices to address food access, zoning, composting, land access, soil health;
• integrating emerging technologies, infrastructure needs (such as access to water and utilities);
• supporting community education about food systems, nutrition, agriculture production, and environment impact;
• operating community gardens or nonprofit farms that offer hands-on training in farming or gardening through virtual or web-based formats; and/or
• providing K-12 schools with educational resources or programs that increase student knowledge and access to locally grown foods.

For new users of Grants.gov, see Section D. of the full Notice of Funding Opportunity for information about steps required before applying via Grants.gov.