Natural Resources Conservation Service
· Federal agency
Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities – Building Markets and Investing in America’s Climate-Smart Farmers, Ranchers & Forest Owners to Strengthen U.S. Rural and Agricultural Communities
May 12, 2022, UPDATE: This funding opportunity is open for second funding pool applications (from $250,000 to $4,999,999), which are due by June 10, 2022, by 11:59pm. Applications for the first funding pool (from $5 mill...
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Award$250k–$100MDeadlineFixedLocationAlabamaTypegrantLevelFederalOpenposted Feb 7, 2022
✦ AI Summary
Who can apply: Federal-level applicants (see eligibility for details).
Funding amount: $250,000 – $100,000,000, total pool ~$1,000,000,000.
The “key facts” mode pulls structured fields directly from the official source posting (amount, deadline, eligibility tags). The AI mode adds a short plain-English narrative on top, generated from the same source. Always verify with the agency before applying.
AI-generated. Always verify with the official source.
Who can apply — at a glance
Eligible applicants:
see the Eligibility tab for the criteria from the official announcement.
Where:
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, District of Columbia.
Award:
$250k–$100M.
Total program pool: $1,000,000,000.
Matching funds:
not required.
Deadline type: Fixed.
Compiled from the official listing's structured fields — always verify with the funder before applying.
May 12, 2022, UPDATE: This funding opportunity is open for second funding pool applications (from $250,000 to $4,999,999), which are due by June 10, 2022, by 11:59pm. Applications for the first funding pool (from $5 million to $100 million) were due May 06, 2022, by 11:59pm Eastern Time and are no longer being accepted. May 06, 2022 UPDATE: Applications for the first funding pool are due May 06, 2022 by 11:59pm Eastern Time, and the opportunity will be temporarily closed from May 07, 2022 through May 11, 2022. The opportunity will open again on May 12, 2022 for the second funding pool applications, which are due by June 10, 2022 by 11:59pm. Modifications on 03/11/2022 extended application due dates and added clarifying edits, including those related to eligibility and quantification. Modifications appear in red text in the Full Announcement document located in the Related Documents tab of this opportunity. Notice of Funding Opportunity (NFO) Summary Up to approximately $1 billion will be made available for the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities projects through this funding opportunity, which will build markets and invest in America’s climate-smart forest owners to strengthen rural and agricultural communities. Through the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, USDA will support the production and marketing of climate-smart commodities through a set of pilot projects that provide voluntary incentives through partners to producers and land owners, including early adopters, to: a. implement climate-smart production systems on working lands, b. measure/quantify, monitor and verify the carbon and greenhouse gas (GHG) benefits associated with those practices, and c. develop markets and promote the resulting climate-smart commodities. Grant agreements under this funding opportunity will be with a single entity, “partner”; however, USDA encourages multiple partners to coordinate on projects. A range of public and private entities are eligible to apply, as described in Section C of the Full Announcement which can be found in the Related Documents tab of this opportunity. Proposals must provide a plan to pilot implementation of climate-smart agriculture and/or forestry practices on a large-scale, including meaningful involvement of small or historically underserved producers, consistent with spirit of the Justice40 initiative; a verification plan; and a plan to develop markets and promote climate-smart commodities generated as a result of project activities. Funding will be provided through two funding pools. Proposals in the first funding pool (requests for amounts from $5 million to $100 million per proposal) will be large-scale pilot projects that emphasize the greenhouse gas benefits of climate-smart commodity production and include direct, meaningful benefits to a representative cross-section of production agriculture, including small and/or historically underserved producers. Proposals in the second funding pool (requests for amounts from $250,000 to $4,999,999 per proposal) are limited to particularly innovative pilot projects with an emphasis on · enrollment of small and/or underserved producers and/or · verification activities developed at minority-serving institutions. All projects must be tied to the development of markets and promotion of climate-smart commodities. For the purposes of this funding opportunity, a “climate-smart commodity” is an agricultural commodity that is produced using agricultural (farming, ranching, or forestry) practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions or sequester carbon. Markets for climate-smart commodities may include companies or processors sourcing climate-smart commodities to meet internal targets or other supply chain goals, biofuel and renewable energy markets, companies seeking to sell branded consumer products, or other opportunities that could provide a premium or additional revenue for participating producers and land owners.
Read the agency's eligibility checklist before you start — it's almost always shorter than the full NOFO and will tell you in 90 seconds whether to keep going.
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