Monday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will deliver on its promise to expand markets by investing $1 billion in partnerships to support America’s climate-smart farmers, ranchers and forest landowners. 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. Secretary Vilsack explains how the new program will work.
Funding will be provided to partners through USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation for pilot projects to provide incentives. A range of public and private entities may apply, and the primary applicant must be an entity, not an individual.
USDA is now accepting project applications for fiscal year 2022. Funding will be provided in two funding pools, and applicants must submit their applications via Grants.gov (USDA-NRCS-COMM-22-NOFO0001139) by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on:
- April 8, 2022, for the first funding pool (proposals from $5 million to $100 million), and
- May 27, 2022, for the second funding pool (proposals from $250,000 to $4,999,999).
More information is available at USDA.gov.