Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities – Building Markets and Investing in America’s Climate-Smart Farmers, Ranchers & Forest Owners to Strengthen U.S. Rural and Agricultural Communities
USDA is offering grants to support climate-smart agriculture and forestry practices, market development, and GHG reduction, with funding pools for both large and small/innovative projects.
This grant is no longer accepting proposals
Natural Resources Conservation Service has archived this opportunity.
Funder: Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
Due Dates: May 6, 2022 (First funding pool) | June 10, 2022 (Second funding pool)
Funding Amounts: Up to $1 billion total; awards range from $250,000 to $100 million per project
Summary: Grants to support large-scale and innovative pilot projects that implement, measure, and market climate-smart agriculture and forestry practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen rural communities.
Key Information: Two funding pools: large-scale projects ($5M–$100M) and innovative smaller projects ($250K–$5M) with emphasis on underserved producers and minority-serving institutions.
Description
The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is offering grants through the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program. This initiative aims to build markets and invest in climate-smart farmers, ranchers, and forest owners to strengthen rural and agricultural communities across the United States.
The program supports pilot projects that:
- Implement climate-smart production practices, activities, and systems on working lands.
- Measure, quantify, monitor, and verify the carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG) benefits of these practices.
- Develop markets and promote climate-smart commodities resulting from these activities.
A "climate-smart commodity" is defined as an agricultural commodity produced using practices that reduce GHG emissions or sequester carbon. Eligible markets include companies sourcing climate-smart commodities for supply chain goals, biofuel and renewable energy markets, branded consumer products, and other opportunities that provide premiums or additional revenue to producers.
Projects must include meaningful involvement of small or historically underserved producers, consistent with the Justice40 initiative, and must have plans for quantification, monitoring, reporting, verification, and market development.
Grant agreements will be made with a single entity ("partner"), but USDA encourages collaboration among multiple partners.
