The California Department of Food and Agriculture is pleased to announce the Organic Transition Pilot (OTP) block grant program.
Donor Name: California Department of Food and Agriculture
State: California
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 09/15/2023
Size of the Grant: $500,000 to $2,000,000
Grant Duration: 48 months
Details:
CDFA is committed to embedding equity in grant programs, and the OTP program was created to ensure support for the most underserved producers to successfully transition to organic production. For this grant program solicitation, therefore, CDFA encourages applications from organizations who serve small to medium sized and socially disadvantaged California farmers and ranchers.
Program Objectives
The OTP program has four objectives in assisting farmers and ranchers. Applicants must propose to engage in all objectives to secure funding:
- Select Farmers and Ranchers: Carry out an outreach and selection process of commercial farmers and ranchers to receive assistance in organic transition. The process should include:
- Outreach to farmers and ranchers who could be served;
- Well-defined selection criteria;
- A transparent selection process;
- Verifying farmers and ranchers have stable tenure on acres under transition to organic.
- Organic Transition Training and Support: Provide on-farm, one-on-one technical assistance and outreach to farmers or ranchers who have acres that are under transition to organic production but are not yet certified organic. These should include:
- Regular follow-up on implementation knowledge needs including training for organic practices, equipment usage, food safety considerations, and organic rules compliance;
- Outreach with specific educational materials;
- Assistance in preparing applications for certifications or conservation farming grants that support the transition to organic practices such as USDA EQIP; USDA Organic transition assistance programs; or CDFA incentive programs, such as the Healthy Soils Program or the Conservation Agricultural Planning Grants Program (depending on funding status).
- Project coordination, such as with contracted farming service providers;
- Translation services, both live and in translating written materials, where appropriate to achieve any Objective.
- Organic Business Planning: Coordinate or provide business planning assistance to farmers or ranchers who have acres that have not yet completed three years under certification. These should include:
- Marketing;
- Recordkeeping;
- Financial literacy training.
- Disburse Financial Assistance: Direct financial assistance to farmers who own, lease or rent actively farmed agricultural land that is undergoing a mandatory 3-year transition in preparation for organic certification. The financial assistance consists firstly of $30,000 support for allowable costs to a farmer or rancher, augmented by up to $1,000 per acre in fieldpreparation costs for a maximum of 30.0 acres. The maximum funds to be disbursed to a single farmer or rancher are $60,000.
Funding Information
Through this solicitation, CDFA will award up to $9.5 million to eligible organizations who will then provide financial and technical assistance to individual producers in the fall/winter.
- The grant term will be up to 48 months.
- The maximum award amount is $2,000,000 and the minimum is $500,000.
- CDFA reserves the right to offer an award different than the amount requested.
- Funds are distributed on a reimbursement basis following submission of quarterly invoices by the awardee.
- Grant funds may not be expended prior to execution of the grant agreements for awarded projects, or after the completion of the grant agreement term.
Eligibility Criteria
- The following entities are eligible to apply for OTP grants:
- Resource Conservation Districts (RCDs)
- University of California, California Community Colleges, or California State Universities
- Non-profit organizations
- California Native American Tribes.
- Entities applying for OTP grants must have demonstrated expertise in disbursement of funds and outreach for agricultural practices. If they do not have sufficient in-house capabilities to meet all of the four required Objectives, ead applicants are encouraged to partner with organizations who have relevant experience. For example, partners could supply capacity in one-onone organic management technical assistance, expertise for language translation, expertise in business planning, access to organic knowledge networks, and/or improved outreach to Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers (SDFRs).
For more information, visit CDFA.
