The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is pleased to announce funding availability for the Healthy Soils – Block Grant Pilot Program.
Donor Name: California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA)
State: California
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 06/19/2023
Size of the Grant: $2,000,000 and $5,000,000
Grant Duration: 4 years
Details:
The Block Grant Pilot Program is designed to facilitate financial assistance to California agricultural operations through regional block grant administrators.
The Healthy Soils – Block Grant Pilot Program is part of the Healthy Soils Program (HSP), which stems from the California Healthy Soils Initiative, a collaboration of state agencies and departments that promotes the development of healthy soils on California’s farmlands and ranchlands. The objectives of the HSP are to increase statewide implementation of conservation management practices that improve soil health, sequester carbon and reduce atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHGs) by providing financial incentives to California growers and ranchers to implement agricultural management practices that sequester carbon, reduce atmospheric GHGs and improve soil health, funding on-farm demonstration projects that conduct research and/or showcase conservation management practices that mitigate GHG emissions and improve soil health, and creating a platform promoting widespread adoption of conservation management practices throughout the state.
Program Objectives
For the purpose of this program there are three entities of interest:
- Block Grant Recipients (BGR/BGRs)
- The entities that will receive the Healthy Soils Block grants. These entities will enter into agreements with CDFA to disburse funds to on-farm projects. These entities will select on-farm projects and assist farmers and ranchers with project implementation and verification. BGRs, or their subcontractors, will provide technical assistance to the Grant Beneficiaries to implement eligible conservation management practices.
- Technical Assistance Providers (TAP/TAPs)
- Technical Assistance Providers are defined in Assembly Bill 2377 (Irwin, 2018) as, “resource conservation districts, the University of California Cooperative Extension, and nonprofit organizations, with demonstrated technical expertise in designing and implementing agricultural management practices.” BGRs may be one of the organizations listed in AB 2377 that can provide technical assistance or may contract with a TAP if not eligible.
- Grant Beneficiaries
- Grant Beneficiaries are defined as California farmers/ ranchers or agricultural operations that either own or control the agricultural land where HSP eligible practices will be implemented. These are the ultimate beneficiaries of these grants.
Funding Information
- CDFA was appropriated $70 million for the Heathy Soils Program from the California State Budget. CDFA will make available approximately $29 million for the Block Grant Pilot Program.
- The grant term is four years.
- The minimum and maximum award per block grant application is $2,000,000 and $5,000,000 respectively.
- 15% of the awarded funds may be used for all direct and indirect costs of administering the block grant program.
- In addition to 15% administrative cost, the Block Grant Recipient (BGR) or the technical assistance partners are eligible for up to 5% of awarded funds for technical assistance activities as specified in AB 2377 (Irwin, 2018).
- Block Grant Recipients may request up to $30,000 to purchase equipment as 50% cost-share to assist on-farm project implementation.
- The remainder of the grant funds must be used to implement the eligible practices on Grant Beneficiaries’ farms or ranches or reimburse Grant Beneficiaries to implement the eligible practices.
- All activities must occur within the grant term. Costs incurred outside of the grant agreement period will not be reimbursed.
- The maximum award for an on-farm project is $200,000 for the grant term of 3 project-years. Grant Beneficiaries are eligible for one grant award per grant cycle.
- CDFA reserves the right to offer an award different than the amount requested.
- CDFA will consider equitable regional distribution of funds along with evaluation criteria while selecting awards.
- All grant reimbursement payments will be made to the BGRs. Block Grant Recipients will be responsible for further disbursement of funds to partners and Grant Beneficiaries.
Grant Beneficiaries
- The program is designed to encourage farmers and ranchers to implement conservation management practices that sequester carbon, reduce atmospheric GHGs, improve soil health, and provide co-benefits while reducing the economic burden of trying new practices. CDFA’s theory of change is that Grant Beneficiaries will experience the benefits through implementation of these practices and then incorporate them into their normal agriculture operations after the grant term has ended.
The following entities or individuals are eligible as Grant Beneficiaries:
- California farmers, ranchers, business entities, and Federally- and California- Recognized Native American Indian Tribes.
- Nonprofit organizations as agriculture operations.
- Individuals or business entities receiving grant award funds must be located in California with a physical California business address.
- Grant Beneficiaries must be at least 18 years old.
Project eligibility includes:
- Projects must be located on agricultural operations in California. For the purposes of this program, an agricultural operation is defined as row, vineyard, field and tree crops, commercial nurseries, nursery stock production, and greenhouse operations producing food crops or flowers as defined in Food and Agricultural Code section 77911.
- The project boundaries must be within the state of California.
- Awards are limited to one per agricultural operation using a unique tax identification number per grant cycle
Eligible Entities
The following entities are eligible to apply for the Block Grant Program:
- Resource Conservation Districts (RCDs)
- University of California (UC), California Community Colleges, or California State Universities (CSU)
- Federally- and California- Recognized Native American Indian Tribes
- Local or regional government agencies such as air pollution control districts.
- State agricultural marketing programs, and federal marketing programs that represent California commodities (California Commodities)
- Nonprofit organizations including, but not limited to:
- Groundwater Sustainability Agencies
- Irrigation districts
- Land trusts
- Note that all entities receiving grant funds must be located in California with a physical California business address.
- Applicant organizations are required to provide technical assistance to Grant Beneficiaries as required by AB 2377. Applicant organizations not eligible under AB 2377 to provide TA must partner with other eligible entities such as RCDs, University of California Cooperative Extension Offices, and nonprofit organizations.
For more information, visit CDFA.
