The University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) is accepting applications for its 2025-2026 Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems Small Grants Program.
Donor Name: University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR)
State: California
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 01/14/2025
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: 1 Year
Details:
The UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (UC SAREP) is a statewide program of University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR). UC SAREP envisions a farming and food system that:
- supports resilience through diversified production, marketing, and distribution systems,
- values all food system workers and supports their physical, economic, and social wellbeing,
- contributes to the health and vitality of urban, rural, and Tribal communities,
- is environmentally regenerative, using resources for production and distribution in a way that protects the environment in trust for future generations, including under changing climate conditions, and
- is culturally responsive and reflects the ethnic, linguistic, and cultural diversity of California.
Program Priority Areas
UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (UC SAREP) is interested in projects that build the capacity of farming and food systems businesses and organizations to become reflective, adaptive learning organizations that can respond effectively to ecological, economic, and social change and disruption.
UC SAREP will fund projects that fall within two priority areas:
- Priority Area 1: Support California’s farmers, ranchers, and Tribal and non-Tribal land stewards of all scales in piloting, evaluating, and transitioning to:
- environmentally regenerative approaches to producing crops and livestock (including but not limited to soil health, organic and agroecological practices, integrated pest management, crop diversification);
- pathways for realizing economic return from ecologically-sound crop management practices and fair labor practices;
- marketing and distribution strategies that support diversified, decentralized, and locally-based supply chains;
- strategies that promote producer-to-producer networking and/or producer-to-supply chain networking.
- Priority Area 2: Support California’s rural, urban, and Tribal communities in identifying, implementing, and evaluating strategies to:
- expand access to healthy, sustainably produced, culturally appropriate foods;
- ensure worker wellbeing across the food chain;
- minimize the community and environmental costs of food production and distribution;
- strengthen connections between consumers and producers;
- establish and strengthen producer-to-producer connections and producer-to-supply chain connections.
- Priority will be given to projects that directly benefit and involve ANY of the following priority groups:
- SB535 Disadvantaged Communities
- Tribal communities, and/or
- socially disadvantaged farmers, ranchers, and land stewards.
Proposal Categories
Proposals are requested for three types of projects:
- Category 1: Planning Grants
- Planning grants are intended to support processes that bring together diverse stakeholders to plan for larger, more complex research and outreach projects for which larger funds are being sought. Grantees may apply for up to $10,000.
- Examples of previously funded Planning projects:
- the creation of a new food policy council;
- exploring how green jobs for women farmworkers can improve their working conditions and the well-being of their communities;
- building a research team and developing plans for conducting a life cycle analysis of California’s beef production system;
- supporting and stewarding coastal San Mateo County producers to collaboratively identify opportunities to overcome common challenges related to expanding markets.
- Category 2: Education and Outreach Grants
- Education and outreach grants include educational events, technical assistance, development and dissemination of materials, and outreach components of research results that support the Program Priority Areas above. Grantees may apply for up to $10,000.
- Examples of previously funded Education and Outreach projects:
- providing legal guidance to low-income entrepreneurs interested in urban and suburban farming, home-based food businesses and cooperatively owned agricultural companies in the San Francisco Bay Area;
- helping Southeast Asian and other small farmers in Sacramento connect with processors and buyers;
- implementing a bilingual educational campaign to communicate the importance of locally and sustainably grown produce from farmers of diverse backgrounds in Napa County;
- providing training and practice workshops on low-cost agricultural technologies and techniques for new and aspiring minority farmers in the Monterey Bay Region.
- Category 3: Applied Research Grants
- These projects are intended to fund original, applied research in the above Program Priority Areas. Research projects should include an outreach component.
- Applied Research Grant I: Grantees may apply for up to $10,000.
- Applied Research Grant II: Grantees may apply for up to $20,000. Only one Applied Research Grant II will be awarded. The project must clearly demonstrate the need for funding at a higher level, such as a requirement for specific equipment or specialized expertise without which the project would not be feasible at all.
- Examples of previously funded research projects:
- quantifying the effectiveness of different planting times and termination dates for cover crops for scavenging excess nitrogen in the soil and reducing nitrate leaching;
- developing an initial understanding of current livestock-crop integration economics, describing the spectrum of practices and economic arrangements in California;
- demonstrating the effect of regenerative grazing and conservation grazing on Blue oak populations;
- examining how the growing trend toward online sales and marketing is affecting farmers who normally sell through direct-to-consumer market channels in California.
Funding Information
Individual grants will be limited to a maximum of $10,000, with one Applied Research Grant awarded up to $20,000.
Grant Period
Projects may begin as soon as May 1, 2025 and must be completed by April 30, 2026.
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible applicants include:
- farm or food system businesses operating in California (business applicants must demonstrate benefit beyond the immediate recipients),
- non-profit, tax-exempt organizations operating in California,
- state and local government agencies, Tribal governments, and
- California public and private institutions of higher education.
UC SAREP Eligibility:
- UC SAREP statewide staff are NOT eligible to apply for or participate on the team of any project. County-based staff or academics working for the UC Organic Agriculture Institute, UC Master Food Preservers, and UC Small Farms Network are eligible to apply.
For more information, visit ANR.
