Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced it received over 350 applications for $3 billion in funding to expand domestic fertilizer production capacity. The applications came from 47 states and two territories for the first two rounds of a new grant program to add innovative domestic fertilizer production capacity. USDA also announced the first $29 million in grant offers under the first round that focused on projects that can come online in the near term.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack discusses how this USDA program encouraging greater domestic fertilizer and input production came to be.
The grants will help independent businesses produce more American-made fertilizer, which will spur competition, give U.S. farmers more choices and better prices, and reduce dependence on several unreliable foreign sources.