Specialty Crop Block Grant Program - Farm Bill

Description

The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) announces the availability of approximately $55 million in grant funds, less USDA administrative costs, to solely enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops. Specialty crops are defined as fruits and vegetables, dried fruit, tree nuts, horticulture and nursery crops (including floriculture). State departments of agriculture interested in obtaining grant program funds are invited to submit applications to USDA. State departments of agriculture, meaning agencies, commissions, or departments of a State government responsible for agriculture within the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands are eligible to apply. Please contact your local State department of agriculture if you are not eligible to apply. State departments of agriculture are encouraged to conduct outreach regarding the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program – Farm Bill to specialty crop stakeholders, socially disadvantaged, and beginning farmers and conduct a competitive grant proposal process. State department of agriculture contacts can be found at www.ams.usda.gov/scbgp. Select “State Contact” from the right navigation bar. Applications from State departments of agriculture must be submitted by July 11, 2012. For more information, please review the Notice of Funds Availability at www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-02-08/pdf/2012-2849.pdf. 

Higher Education Challenge (HEC) Grants Program

Deadline: March 30, 2012

Applications may be submitted by: (a) U.S. public or private nonprofit colleges and universities offering a baccalaureate or first professional degree in at least one discipline or area of the food and agricultural sciences; (b) land-grant colleges and universities, (including land grant institutions in the Insular Areas); (c) colleges and universities having significant minority enrollments and a demonstrable capacity to carry out the teaching of food and agricultural sciences; and (d) other colleges and universities having a demonstrable capacity to carry out the teaching of food and agricultural sciences. 

Agency Name

National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Description

Projects supported by the Higher Education Challenge Grants Program will: (1) address a State, regional, national, or international educational need; (2) involve a creative or non-traditional approach toward addressing that need that can serve as a model to others; (3) encourage and facilitate better working relationships in the university science and education community, as well as between universities and the private sector, to enhance program quality and supplement available resources; and (4) result in benefits that will likely transcend the project duration and USDA support. 

Link to Full Announcement

Higher Education Challenge (HEC) Grants Program

PA Ag webinar to focus on financing

Lending in Greener Pastures: Taking a Closer Look at Agricultural Economic Development

Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Webinar
9:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Conference Info & Registration

Farmers Grow Rural Education program

[from Philanthropy News Digest] Monsanto Fund, the philanthropic arm of the Monsanto Company, has announced the launch of its America's Farmers Grow Rural Education program. The grant program will provide grants in over twelve hundred counties across thirty-nine states to help strengthen local communities and education systems, especially in the areas of science and/or math. Grants will be awarded based on merit, need, and community support.

The program invites farmers to nominate a public school district in their community to compete for a grant. Administrators from nominated school districts can then submit an application for either a $10,000 or $25,000 grant to support a science and/or math education program.

School districts that apply for a $10,000 grant will compete against other school districts located in a USDA-appointed Crop Reporting District; CRDs with fewer than five eligible school districts will compete against each other for a single grant. A school district that applies for a $25,000 grant will compete against schools located in its state or designated region. The Monsanto Fund will award a hundred and ninety-nine grants through the program in 2012: a hundred and seventy-seven $10,000 grants and twenty-two grants of $25,000. Overall, the fund will donate more than $2.3 million to school districts through the program.

To be eligible to submit a nomination, farmers must be at least 21 years old and actively engaged in farming a minimum of two hundred and fifty acres of corn, soybeans, and/or cotton, and/or forty acres of open field vegetables, or at least ten acres of vegetables grown in protected culture; and must reside in eligible counties where a minimum of thirty thousand acres of corn and/or soybeans and/or cotton and/or vegetables are planted each year.

Visit the America's Farmers Grow Rural Education Web site for the complete list of eligible states and regions, program guidelines, and nomination procedures.

Link to Complete RFP

Monsanto Fund Invites Farmers to Nominate School Districts for America's Farmers Grow Rural Education Grant Program

Monsanto Fund, the philanthropic arm of the Monsanto Company, has announced the launch of its America's Farmers Grow Rural Education program.

The grant program will provide grants in over twelve hundred counties across thirty-nine states to help strengthen local communities and education systems, especially in the areas of science and/or math. Grants will be awarded based on merit, need, and community support.

The program invites farmers to nominate a public school district in their community to compete for a grant. Administrators from nominated school districts can then submit an application for either a $10,000 or $25,000 grant to support a science and/or math education program.

School districts that apply for a $10,000 grant will compete against other school districts located in a USDA-appointed Crop Reporting District; CRDs with fewer than five eligible school districts will compete against each other for a single grant. A school district that applies for a $25,000 grant will compete against schools located in its state or designated region. The Monsanto Fund will award a hundred and ninety-nine grants through the program in 2012: a hundred and seventy-seven $10,000 grants and twenty-two grants of $25,000. Overall, the fund will donate more than $2.3 million to school districts through the program.

To be eligible to submit a nomination, farmers must be at least 21 years old and actively engaged in farming a minimum of two hundred and fifty acres of corn, soybeans, and/or cotton, and/or forty acres of open field vegetables, or at least ten acres of vegetables grown in protected culture; and must reside in eligible counties where a minimum of thirty thousand acres of corn and/or soybeans and/or cotton and/or vegetables are planted each year.

Visit the America's Farmers Grow Rural Education Web site for the complete list of eligible states and regions, program guidelines, and nomination procedures.

Contact:
Link to Complete RFP

Pennsylvania Eligible Counties:
CRD 10: Crawford, Erie, Mercer
CRD 20: Lycoming
CRD 40: Butler, Indiana
CRD 50: Blair, Centre, Columbia, Dauphin, Northumberland, Perry
CRD 60: Lehigh, Northampton, Schuykill 
CRD 70: Somerset, Westmoreland
CRD 80: Adams, Bedford, Cumberland, Franklin, York
CRD 90: Berks, Chester, Lancaster, Lebanon

Land Conservation Assistance Grants

Application Period for the Agricultural Land Conservation Assistance Grant Program

[41 Pa.B. 6382]
[Saturday, December 3, 2011]

 An application period for grants under the Agricultural Land Conservation Assistance Grant Program (program) administered by the Department of Agriculture (Department) has started. The program is authorized by sections 7.1 and 7.3 of the act of June 18, 1982 (P. L. 549, No. 159) (3 P. S. §§ 1207.1 and 1207.3). In summary, the program allows the Department to award grants to certain counties for projects that will establish or improve agricultural conservation easement purchase programs. Regulations for the program are in 7 Pa. Code Chapter 138h (relating to Agricultural Land Conservation Assistance Grant Program). These regulations can be viewed and downloaded at www.pacode.com.

 Applications for the program will be accepted by the Department beginning January 2, 2012, for a 45-day period ending at 4 p.m. on February 16, 2012. Information and grant application forms may be obtained from April Orwig, Bureau of Farmland Preservation, Department of Agriculture, 2301 North Cameron Street, Room 402, Harrisburg, PA 17110-9408.

GEORGE D. GREIG, 
Secretary

Direct Farm Sales grants

An application period for grants under the Direct Farm Sales Grant Program (Program) administered by the Department of Agriculture (Department), Bureau of Food Distribution (Bureau). For the 2012 Project Year, the application period is November 7, 2011, to December 19, 2011. Information about the Program and application forms can be accessed at the Department's web site at www.agriculture.state.pa.us under the Bureau. Application forms are also available by contacting Sandy Hopple, (800) 468-2433.

 In summary, the Program provides funds to Commonwealth-based businesses that manage or operate farm stands or farmers' markets, nonprofit organizations, farmers and local governments for projects intended to promote new or existing farmers' markets. Projects must pertain to specialty crops. The maximum grant amount per farm stand or farmers' market location shall be $7,500 and applicants shall be expected to provide 25% of the approved grant amount in matching funds or in-kinds goods or services. The anticipated date for the award of grants and notice thereof is expected to be on or before February 1, 2012. The application, work plan and budget should reflect March 1, 2012, as the project start date and the project completion date will be September 30, 2012.

 Applications for the Program will be accepted by the Department beginning Monday, November 7, 2011, and continue through Monday, December 19, 2011. Applications to be hand-delivered must be received by 4 p.m. in the Bureau on Monday, December 19, 2011, the closing date. Applications which are mailed must be postmarked no later than Monday, December 19, 2011, and received no later than December 23, 2011.

 Completed applications should be addressed to or delivered to Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Food Distribution, Direct Farm Sales Grant Program, 2301 North Cameron Street, Room 401, Harrisburg, PA 17110-9408.