The goal of this funding opportunity is for NRCS, in collaboration with a diverse set of partners, including historically underserved farmers and ranchers and their organizations, to expand the delivery of conservation technical assistance to support grazing planning and conservation practice implementation and monitoring, conferences and other education, demonstrations, producer networks, workforce training, research and outreach projects to improve agricultural resilience.
Donor Name: Natural Resources Conservation Service
State: All States
County: All Counties
Territory: Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 09/22/2022
Size of the Grant: $300,000
Grant Duration: 2 years
Details:
Funding for the Conservation Technical Assistance: Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative (GLCI) Cooperative Agreements is supported by FY 2022 GLCI. GLCI also provides support to NRCS for grazing technical assistance to producers, as well as the National Grazing Lands Coalition to help state grazing coalitions form and persist with participation from historically underserved producers, to host a Triennial National Grazing Lands Conference, and to act as navigators for grazers seeking additional resources.
Program Purpose and Priorities
- The purpose of Conservation Technical Assistance: Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative (GLCI) Cooperative Agreements is to enhance NRCS and partner resources to:
- Increase acreage across the nation in managed grazing that addresses natural resource concerns.
- Increase availability of technical assistance for farmers and ranchers engaged in grazing activities.
- Increase technical assistance for historically underserved farmers and ranchers engaged in grazing activities.
- Expand and establish new peer-to-peer networks and direct financial support for mentors working with new, beginning, or transitioning farmers and ranchers engaged in grazing activities.
- Ensure a broad set of the grazing community including minority producers, and associated institutions such as 1890, 1994, and Hispanic serving Land Grant Institutions, are serviced by GLCI.
- Ensure strong participation by minority producers in new and existing grazing coalitions.
Funding Information
- Award Ceiling: $300,000
- Award Floor: $150,000
- Projects may be up to one to two years in duration.
Eligibility Criteria
- Eligibility for this opportunity is limited to the following entity types based in any of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Caribbean Area (Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands), and the Pacific Islands Area (Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands):
- Nonprofit organizations having a 501(c)(3) status with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) (other than institutions of higher education)
- Farmer or rancher organizations
- State and local conservation governmental agencies
- Agricultural Extension Services
- Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized)
- Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
- Land grant universities including 1890 or 1994 land grant institution (7 U.S.C. 3222 et seq.), Hispanic-serving institution (20 U.S.C. 1101a), or other minority serving institution, such as an historically Black college or university (20 U.S.C. 1061), a tribally controlled college or university (25 U.S.C. 1801), or Asian American and Pacific Islander-serving institution (20 U.S.C. 1059g).
Eligible Activities
Eligible Activities for the GLCI Cooperative Agreements include:
- Technical assistance
- Write and implement grazing plans
- Develop range land health reference worksheets and/or grazing management interpretations on both range land and pastureland to update current Ecological Site Descriptions.
- To spur innovation and grazing technologies
- Education (Conferences, workshops, webinars, and other educational events).
- Grazing networks (field days, pasture walks, peer-to-peer knowledge exchange, mentorship)
- NRCS Workforce Development, including mentorship, training, and apprenticeship arrangements.
- Examples of trainings for NRCS employees include Working Effectively with Livestock Producers, Interpreting Indicators of Rangeland Health, Pasture Condition Scoring, Conservation Planning on Grazing Lands, and other grazing land tools and technologies used to assess grazing lands.
- Youth outreach related to grazing land management
- A limited amount of funds in each region may be used to conduct on-farm research as a supplemental goal for any projects conducting the above activities.
For more information, visit Grants.gov.
