The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is accepting applications for its Agricultural Growth, Research, and Innovation (AGRI) Sustainable Agriculture Demonstration Grant (SustAg) program to support innovative on-farm research and demonstrations.
Donor Name: Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA)
State: Minnesota
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 12/07/2023
Size of the Grant: Up to $50,000
Grant Duration: 3 years
Details:
Grants fund research or demonstrations on Minnesota farms that explore sustainable agriculture practices and systems that could make farming more profitable, resource efficient, and personally satisfying. Findings are published by the MDA, historically in the Greenbook. This program is designed to demonstrate and publicize the energy efficiency, environmental benefit, or profitability of sustainable agriculture techniques or systems from production through marketing.
Projects must last at least two years but no more than three. During the final year of the project, grantees share outcomes with other producers at a field day or other type of outreach event.
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.
This grant will prioritize:
- Projects led by a farmer or group of farmers
- Projects that include two to three years of data collection
- Emerging farmers, including women, veterans, persons with disabilities, American Indian or Alaskan Natives, members of a community of color, young farmers, and farmers who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, or asexual (LGBTQIA+).
Grant outcomes will include:
- Supporting farmers, nonprofit organizations, and educational institutions in completing innovative on- farm research and demonstration
- Exploring sustainable agriculture practices and systems that could make farming more profitable, resource efficient, or personally satisfying.
- Testing and demonstrating on-farm practices that will benefit a broad range of farmers.
Funding Information
They plan to award approximately $350,000 using a competitive review process. It expects to fund 8 to 15 grants, but the final number depends on the size of the awards. In this round of funding, applicants may only receive one SustAg grant.
You may request up to $50,000 for your project.
- The first $25,000 does not need to be matched.
- For requests between $25,000 and $50,000, you must supply a dollar-for-dollar match on the amount above $25,000.
- Grant expenses are reimbursed when you submit expense documentation, up to four times per year.
- 10% of grant funds will be withheld until you complete your final outreach project and turn in your final reports.
Eligible Projects
Projects must:
- Show the ability to increase direct or indirect energy savings or production;
- Have a positive effect or reduce harmful effects on the environment; or
- Demonstrate increased profitability for the individual farm by reducing costs or improving marketing opportunities.
Project must also:
- Be conducted on a Minnesota farm or farms.
- Publicize and hold an outreach event in the form of a field day or other virtual event in the final season or year of the project. Examples of outreach events include but are not limited to field days, video diaries, how- to guides, blog posts, podcast interviews, presentations at ag-based conferences or meetings, etc
- Not start until the grant contract is signed by all parties and has reached its start date.
- Be completed in three years or less. Grant contract agreements cannot be extended beyond three years.
Eligibility Criteria
Applicants must:
- Be a Minnesota farmer, educational institution, individual at an educational institution, or a non-profit
- For this program, a farmer is someone who cultivates, operates, or manages a farm for profit, and who grows or raises at least $1,000 of agricultural products for sale annually.
- Other government entities such as municipalities and counties are not eligible.
- Live in the state or be located in the state for research or demonstrations on farms in the state.
- Be in good standing with the State of Minnesota:
- No back taxes owned.
- No defaults on Minnesota state-backed financing for the last seven years.
- Acceptable performance on past MDA grants.
- Compliant with current state regulations.
For more information, visit MDA.
