The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is currently seeking applications for its Agricultural Fertilizer Research and Education Grant Program to identify soil fertility priorities and provide funding for fertilizer research and outreach programs.
Donor Name: Minnesota Department of Agriculture
State: Minnesota
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 11/23/2022
Size of the Grant: up to $1,000,000
Details:
Priorities
- It is the policy of the State of Minnesota to ensure fairness, precision, equity, and consistency in competitive grant awards. This includes implementing diversity and inclusion in grant-making.
- Policy 08-02 establishes the expectation that grant programs intentionally identify how the grant serves diverse populations, especially populations experiencing inequities and/or disparities. The grant program aims to provide near-term and long-term benefits for Minnesota agriculture, its producers, and associated industries.
Grant outcomes will include:
- Develop fertilizer research and management recommendations for crops and cropping systems from across Minnesota including multiple geographic regions.
- Measure how the grant serves a geographically diverse set of people to include historically underrepresented groups and Tribal nations.
- Provide transferrable and beneficial outcomes for groups other than the grantee.
Priorities for Research and Education/Outreach Grants
RFP priorities for new research and education grants in 2022-2023 include:
- Research to reevaluate/revise current fertilizer recommendations for Minnesota’s secondary crops defined as those with acreage of less than 2% of MN’s cropland acres (such as edible beans, sunflowers, potatoes, etc.).
- Fertilizer or manure research on yields and crop quality in a sugarbeet rotation. Objectives of this research should include fertilizer impacts on the level of residue production prior to sugar beets, as well as, managing the fallow syndrome effects on crops following sugar beets.
- Continued AFREC Research Outreach Coordinator support to 1) Develop and implement a work plan for the annual
research RFP, 2) Facilitate AFREC Council meetings and conference calls, 3) Assist with technical aspects of the RFP and assemble a peer review committee, 4) Coordinate various information outlets with AFREC 5) Formal reporting between the Council and MDA, 6) Represent AFREC and MDA at related soil fertility research meetings, and 7) Coordinate partnerships.
Funding Information
$1,000,000 will be available for fertilizer sales.
Eligibility Criteria
Any organization, research entity, individual or business with agriculture research capability is eligible to apply and receive funding. This includes individuals, farmers/farmer networks, institutions of higher education, research institutions, non-profit organizations, agricultural cooperatives and agricultural businesses with research capabilities.
Eligible Projects
- Eligible project activities include research that addresses one or more of the activities as defined by the Minnesota Agricultural Fertilizer Research and Education Program Minnesota Statute 18C.71.
- These activities include research, education, technology transfer related to the production and application of commercial fertilizer, soil amendments, and other plant amendments. AFREC’s goal is to have projects selected and contracts executed prior to the 2023 cropping season.
For more information, visit MDA.
