The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), an agency under the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is announcing potential availability of contribution agreements for the purpose of leveraging NRCS resources, addressing local natural resource issues, encouraging collaboration and developing state- and community-level conservation leadership.

Proposals are requested for competitive consideration for projects in the state of Minnesota for the following initiatives:

• Connecting Agriculture Retailers with Conservation Delivery: The overall objective of this category is to increase private land conservation and encourage wide-spread adoption of conservation solutions by providing the go-between leadership of NRCS and private agricultural industry by:
  • Integrating conservation and support of NRCS services into an agricultural retailers' networks
  • Equipping retailers with the knowledge of NRCS programs, the ability to cooperatively work with the Agency, and assist in the implementation of conservation
  • Building leadership and expertise within NRCS on the services farmer cooperatives and agricultural retailers provide
  • Equipping local offices with a better understanding of agronomic principals to better meet NRCS customer’s needs and provide better understanding of the economic considerations in agronomic planning
• Connecting the Urban Consumer with Rural Producers:
  • Promoting conservation work on the farm with urban communities/organizations
  • Highlighting conservation and food production interface with the general public
  • Agritourism and Field Days
  • Highlighting on farm ecosystem benefits for public consumption

Funding Information

• NRCS anticipates that the amount available for support of this program in FY 2021 will be $350,000. Minimum/Maximum individual award amounts are anticipated to be $50,000/$300,000.
• Proposals are requested from all domestic applicants for competitive consideration of contribution agreement awards for projects between 2 and 3 years in duration.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants and applications must meet eligibility criteria by the application deadline to be considered for award. Eligible applicant type is determined by the implementing program statute. Applicant entities identified in the SAM.gov exclusions database as ineligible, prohibited/restricted, or excluded from receiving Federal contracts and certain Federal assistance and benefits will not be considered for Federal funding, as applicable to the funding being requested under this Federal program (2 CFR 200.206(d)).
• This opportunity is open to all domestic applicants.

For more information, visit Grants.gov.