This competitive grant program will fund up to 10 soil and water conservation districts for outreach, recruitment, and enrollment of qualifying producers in the Alliance to Advance Climate-Smart Agriculture (“the Alliance”) Pilot Program, technical assistance to producers, and verification and reporting of conservation practices implemented.
Donor Name: Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources
State: Arkansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, Virginia
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 03/11/2024
Size of the Grant: $100,000 to $500,000
Grant Duration: 3 Years
Details:
The Alliance Pilot Program is a multi-state partnership with Virginia Polytechnic University (Virginia Tech) funded through the USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Program. In participating districts, the program will provide farmers and ranchers who voluntarily implement conservation practices with incentive payments of $100 per acre or per animal unit, that reflect the benefits they deliver to soil health, water, air and climate. Payments are intended to exceed implementation costs, economic losses during transition to new practices, and future climate policy costs.
The project management staff in Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences will administer the program in partnership with BWSR and with participation from numerous additional partners. The pilot program will operate in Arkansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Virginia. In Minnesota, the goal is to enroll approximately 400 participants for a two-year period.
Funding Information
BSWR anticipates awarding up to $375,000 to each of 6 to 10 SWCDs, to be used to administer the pilot program over a three-year period. Funding for incentive payments to producers will be provided directly to those producers by Virginia Tech, at a minimum of $13 million across all participating districts, using combined federal and state funds, with additional incentives for limited resource producers.
Eligible Activities
Administration of the pilot program, including the following activities:
- Conducting outreach to producers, including tailored outreach to limited resource producers;
- Reviewing producer applications for completeness (Virginia Tech will provide application and portal and select applicants);
- Ensuring that contracts between Virginia Tech and producers are executed in a timely manner;
- Providing technical assistance to producers for conservation practice planning and implementation to producers throughout the project;
- Working with BWSR, MASWCD and other program partners to share information about program progress, challenges and accomplishments;
- Hosting and/or participating in field days and events with other districts and program partners;
- Assisting producers in self-certification of completed practices;
- Completing required reporting through the eLINK system;
- Assisting in validating entry of data using the COMET Planner and COMET Farm (for a sub-sample of selected participants). Training in the use of the COMET tools will be provided.
- Spot checking self-certification by producers following implementation of practices.
Eligible Applicants
The following entities are eligible:
- Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs) individually or in partnership, working under a current State approved and locally adopted local water management plan, comprehensive watershed management plan or soil and water conservation district comprehensive plan.
For more information, visit BWSR.
