The Arkansas Department of Agriculture (Department) is now accepting applications for projects under the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure (RFSI) grant program.
Donor Name: Arkansas Department of Agriculture
State: Arkansas
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 02/16/2024
Size of the Grant: More than $1 million
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
The RFSI program is intended to support food systems crops and products meant for human consumption, excluding meat and poultry products which are funded through other USDA programs. The Department will work in partnership with USDA to make competitive subawards to support infrastructure in the middle of the supply chain for domestic food and farm businesses and other eligible entities, focusing on small to mid-sized businesses and organizations.
Priorities
Funding priorities for Arkansas were established based on feedback from surveys, outreach, public comment, data collected from previous reports, and meetings. The top three priorities established are:
- Projects that construct, expand, or modernize processing or value-added facilities;
- Projects that construct, expand, or modernize aggregation and/or storage facilities;
- Projects that construct, expand, or modernize distribution facilities and services.
Examples of projects meeting these funding priorities include, but are not limited to:
- Expand capacity for processing, aggregation, and distribution of agricultural products to create more and better markets for producers;
- Modernize manufacturing, tracking, storage, and information technology systems;
- Support construction of a new facility;
- Modernize or expand an existing facility (including expansion and modifications to existing buildings and/or construction of new buildings at existing facilities);
- Modernize processing and manufacturing equipment.
Funding Information
- Total Funding Awarded to Arkansas: $5,613,423.25
- Award Range for Infrastructure Grants: $100,000 – $3,000,000
Eligibility Criteria
Entities eligible for Infrastructure Grants are:
- Agricultural producers or processors, or groups of agricultural producers and processors;
- Nonprofit organizations operating middle-of-the-supply-chain activities such as processing, aggregation, distribution of targeted agricultural products;
- For-profit entities operating middle-of-the-supply-chain activities such as processing, aggregation, or distribution of targeted agricultural products, whose activities are primarily focused for the benefit of local and regional producers, and that meet the eligibility requirements of the SBA small business size standards are eligible. For-profit entities must meet the eligibility requirements of the SBA small business size standards matched to industries described in the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS).
- Local government entities operating middle-of-the-supply-chain activities such as processing, aggregation, distribution of targeted agricultural products;
- Tribal governments operating middle-of-the-supply-chain activities such as processing, aggregation, distribution of targeted agricultural products;
- Institutions such as schools, universities, or hospitals bringing producers together to establish cooperative or shared infrastructure or invest in equipment that will benefit multiple producers’ middle-of-the-supply-chain activities such as processing, aggregation, distribution of targeted agricultural products.
All organizations must be domestically owned and located within the state of Arkansas.
For more information, visit Arkansas Department of Agriculture.
