Grant Profile: Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture Pilot

Grant Description

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.

The project management staff in Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences will administer the program in partnership with BWSR and with participation from numerous additional partners. The pilot program will operate in Arkansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Virginia. In Minnesota, the goal is to enroll approximately 400 participants for a two-year period.

Reporting Overview

A workplan must be approved before work can begin on this grant. The workplan should be developed in eLINK using the activities proposed in the application, although BWSR may require additional details at this stage.  The workplan will lock upon submittal to BWSR for approval, preventing edits to the approved budget but allowing you to enter expenses and reporting details as work is completed.

Resources:

Alliance to Advance Climate-Smart Agriculture