The Montana Department of Agriculture (MDA) is now accepting applications for its Specialty Crop Block Grant (SCBG) program.
Donor Name: Montana Department of Agriculture
State: Montana
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 02/27/2026
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: 3 Years
Details:
The purpose of the SCBG program is to enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops in Montana. Specialty crops include fruits and vegetables, peas, lentils, dried fruits, as well as horticulture, nursery crops, and floriculture. State and/or local organizations, government entities, producer associations, academia, community-based organizations, nonprofit organizations, and other specialty crop stakeholders are eligible to apply either as single entities or in combined efforts.
Priorities
The following priorities have been adopted by MDA specific to the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program. These priorities are used to guide the MDA Director in making decisions on funding recommendations.
- Providing Farmer Education on Specialty Crop(s)
- Farm to institution practices
- Practical business skill building for SC producers
- Farm and food safety
- Organic production
- Soil health and conservation
- Industry promotion and marketing development
- Tribal sharing of traditional ecological knowledge of indigenous specialty crops
- Planning and Supporting Infrastructures that create or support Specialty Crop(s)
- Cost-sharing and cooperative models for storage
- Distribution system efficiency, cost-savings and resiliency
- Regional and state processing infrastructure planning
- Farm to Institute
- Supporting small scale aggregation
- Farm to Institute
- Value-added production
- Supporting Research in the Areas of Specialty Crop(s)
- Supporting Farmer’s interests with research
- Research in soil amendments
- Drought tolerant, Cold tolerant, and disease resistant varieties
- Low external-input growing methods
- Genetic resources for cultivar development
- Low-cost technology development for the producer
- Specialty crop training in production method
- Building Consumer and Buyer Relationships
- Regional and statewide education and marketing efforts around specialty crop products
- Marketing opportunities to connect producers and buyers
- Strengthening Producer Networks and Associations
- Producer networking events
- Capacity building
- Use of available forums for producer connections
- Encourage consumer education.
Funding Information
- MDA anticipates funding available of approximately $2,700,000
- Funding amount requested must be a minimum of $25,000; there is no maximum funding on a project.
- Proposed projects should start no earlier than September 30, 2026 and end no later than September 29, 2029.
Eligible Projects
USDA encourages entities to develop projects pertaining to the following issues affecting the specialty crop industry:
- Investing in specialty crop research, including research to focus on conservation and environmental outcomes;
- Developing new and improved seed varieties and specialty crops;
- Pest and disease control;
- Increasing child and adult nutrition knowledge and consumption of specialty crops;
- Improving efficiency and reducing costs of distribution systems;
- Sustainability;
- Enhancing food safety; and
- Improving the capacity of all entities in the specialty crop distribution chain to comply with the requirements of the Food Safety Modernization Act (21 U.S.C. Chapter 27), for example, developing “Good Agricultural Practices,” “Good Handling Practices,” “Good Manufacturing Practices,” and in cost-share arrangements for funding audits of such systems (including USDA GroupGAP) for small farmers, packers and processors.
Eligibility Criteria
State and/or local organizations, government entities, producer associations, academia, community based organizations, and other specialty crop stakeholders are eligible to apply either as single entities or in combined efforts. Regional or multi-state projects may be considered.
For more information, visit MDA.
