The Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources is accepting applications for its Alliance for Advance Climate-Smart Agriculture Pilot Grant Program.
Donor Name: Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources
State: Minnesota
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 02/08/2024
Size of the Grant: $100,000 to $500,000
Grant Duration: 3 Years
Details:
This grant will provide funds to Soil and Water Conservation Districts for outreach, recruitment, and enrollment of qualifying producers in the Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture (“the Alliance”) Pilot Program, technical assistance to producers, and verification and reporting of conservation practices implemented.
The Alliance Pilot Program is a multi-state partnership with Virginia Polytechnic University (Virginia Tech) funded through the USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Program, which will pay farmers and ranchers who voluntarily implement conservation practices with incentive payments of $100 per acre or per animal unit, that reflect the benefits they deliver to soil health, water, air and climate. Payments are intended to exceed implementation costs, economic losses during transition to new practices, and future climate policy costs.
Funding Information
BWSR anticipates awarding up to $375,000 to each of 6 to 10 SWCDs, to be used to administer the pilot program over a three-year period. Funding for incentive payments to producers will be provided directly to those producers by Virginia Tech, at a minimum of $13 million across all participating districts, using combined federal and state funds, with additional incentives for limited resource producers.
Eligible Activities
Administration of the pilot program, including the following activities:
- Conducting outreach to producers, including tailored outreach to limited resource producers;
- Reviewing producer applications for completeness (Virginia Tech will provide application and portal and select applicants);
- Ensuring that contracts between Virginia Tech and producers are executed in a timely manner;
- Providing technical assistance to producers for conservation practice planning and implementation to producers throughout the project;
- Working with BWSR, MASWCD and other program partners to share information about program progress, challenges and accomplishments;
- Hosting and/or participating in field days and events with other districts and program partners;
- Assisting producers in self-certification of completed practices;
- Completing required reporting through the eLINK system;
- Assisting in validating entry of data using the COMET Planner and COMET Farm (for a sub-sample of selected participants). Training in the use of the COMET tools will be provided.
- Spot checking self-certification by producers following implementation of practices.
Eligibility Criteria
The following entities are eligible:
- Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs) individually or in partnership, working under a current State approved and locally adopted local water management plan, comprehensive watershed management plan or soil and water conservation district comprehensive plan.
For more information, visit BWSR.
