The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) just announced its second call for grant applications for the Healthy Soils Program. Applications are due by 5pm on April 13.
Both direct farmer incentive grants (up to $50,000 per grant) and demonstration project grants (up to $100,000 per grant) are available for practices such as cover crops, compost, hedgerows, reduced tillage and more. The total funding available is $1.6 million (the amount not distributed during its first grant round in Dec. 2017).
CDFA made some important changes to the Healthy Soils program application, including the following:
CDFA made some important changes to the Healthy Soils program application, including the following:
- Grants will be awarded on a first-come, first-serve basis.
- Farmers can apply for any one of the 15 eligible practices, unlike the last round’s requirement that applicants adopt one of five “soil management” practices in order to be eligible to apply for the other 10 eligible practices.
- Applications are now available as a fillable Microsoft Word document instead of online through the state’s FAAST system which should make it considerably easier for farmers to apply.
Check out the CDFA call for applications here.
