The USDA is sharing an opportunity to groups that want to partner with farmers in finding scalable conservation efforts. Last month, USDA´s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) announced that it is seeking proposals through June 21st for On-Farm Conservation Innovation Trials (On-Farm Trials). On-Farm Trials is part of the agency’s Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) program. It’s a collaboration between the NRCS and partners to apply on-the-ground activities and then evaluate their effectiveness.
NRCS will invest $25 million on On-Farm Trials that include up to $10 million for the Soil Health Demonstration Trails (SHD) priority in 2021. The focus of the SHD Trials is to apply conservation practices and systems which improve the health of soil.
Producers who will be risking applying innovative practices will be provided Incentive payments. Farmers who are eligible will be given grants from the CIG program.
Jimmy Bramblett, NRCS Deputy Chief for Programs, says that non-governmental organizations and non-federal organizations are eligible to apply for the On-Farm Trials grants.
“This idea is to take some of the plot scale research at land-grant universities and other partners and test them at farm scale, then see if those conservation concepts can prove out under a larger scale under different measures of risk. For instance, with $6 corn and $14 soybeans, can these concepts scale out. Or, can they scale out under other climate risks. The On-Farm Trials program will work with producers who are EQUIP- program eligible.” says Bramblett.
The concepts that prove themselves will be implemented by the NRCS and used by the 200,000 farmers and ranchers the agency works with each year.
NRCS is seeking proposals that address at least one of the four On-Farm priorities:
- Climate-smart agriculture solutions
- Soil health demonstration trial
- Irrigation water management
- Management technologies and strategies
- NRCS will accept proposals from following entities:
- Private entities whose primary business is related to agriculture
- Non-government organizations with experience working agricultural producers
- Non-federal government agencies
NRCS encourages proposal submissions from underserved entities and encourages all applicants to include other producers who have historically been underserved in their On-Farm Trials proposal submissions.
