Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE)
"Harnessing Microbes for Sustainable Food Production"
Tools and Resources
This section provides information for tools and resources, such as governmental supports and financial assistance, that farmers can utilize to initiate and implement sustainable farming practices.
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Financial Assistance through NRCS Programs
The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provides financial and technical assistance to farmers to manage resources sustainably through different financial assistance programs.
Agricultural Management Assistance (AMA): Helps farmers manage their risk and solve environmental issues using natural resource conservation.
The Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP): Helps farmers improve their current conservation systems and implement additional conservation practices. The higher the conservation performance is met with higher payments.
The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP): Provides financial assistance to help farmers achieve improved water and air quality, water conservation, soil health, reduced erosion, etc.
The Water Bank Program (WBP): Provides financial assistance for the benefit of migratory wildlife, conservation of surface waters, and reduced erosion for flood control.
For more information on these programs please click the following link:
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Beginning and Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers Programs & Grants
1. Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program: funds training for farmers to build up business and technical skills.
2. Conservation Reserve Program- Transition Incentives Program: provides payments to encourage landowners to sell or lease to farmers that wish to implement sustainable farming practices or transition to organic farming.
3. Direct and Gauranteed Farm Loans: DIRECT provides governmental loans to purchase start-up equipment, farmland, and production needs. GUARANTEE provides a government guarantee on commercial loans for real estate and operation costs.
4. Down Payment Loans: low interest governmental loans together with private loans and down payment to purchase a farm or ranch.
5. Land Contract Guarantee: reduces the risk of farmers retiring and selling land by a multi-year land contract.
6. Microloans: provides loans up to $50,000 for operating expenses or real estate costs for small, beginning, or disadvanted farmers.
7. Outreach and Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged and Veteran Farmers and Ranchers: provides help to increase underserved producers in USDA programs by grants made to academic institutions, extension, and tribal organizations.
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Conservation and Environment Programs & Grants
1. Agricultural Conservation Easement Program: helps landowners protect and restore natural wetlands, grasslands, and farms by conservation easements.
2. Conservation Innovation Grants: provides grants to farmers and groups to fund projects such as demonstrations and research to enhance access to resource conservation solutions.
3. Conservation Loans: provides a federal guarantee on private loans that helps farmers utilize conservation practices on their farm.
4. Conservation Reserve Program: uses long-term rental agreements to protect soil, water quality, and habitat through the removal of environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production.
5. Conservation Reserve Program- Transistion Incentives Program: provides payments to encourage landowners to sell or lease to farmers that wish to implement sustainable farming practices or transition to organic farming.
6. Conservation Stewardship Program: offers 5-year renewable payment contracts to farmers in order to practice conservation such as rotations, cover cropping, rotational grazing, and IPM.
7. Environmental Quality Incentives Program: provides cost-share and technical assistance payment to farmers for working lands conservation. It includes the Organic Initiative, High Tunnel Initiative, and regional landscape scale initiatives.
8. Regional Conservation Sponsorship Program: allows agencies and organizations to partner with the Natural Resources Conservation Service on projects to advocate the adoption of conservation activities.
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Credit and Crop Insurance Programs & Grants
1. Conservation Loans: provides a federal guarantee on private loans that helps farmers utilize conservation practices on their farm.
2. Direct and Guaranteed Farm Loans: DIRECT provides governmental loans to purchase start-up equipment, farmland, and production needs. GUARANTEE provides a government guarantee on commercial loans for real estate and operation costs.
3. Down Payment Loans: low interest governmental loans together with private loans and down payment to purchase a farm or ranch.
4. Farm Storage Facility Loans: offers low interest loans up to $500,000 for the development of production storage facilities and buildings used for equipment maintenance.
5. Microloans: provides loans up to $50,000 for operating expenses or real estate costs for small, beginning or disadvanted farmers.
6. Noninsured Crop Disaster Assitance Program: assists farmers who experience crop losses who don't have adequate crop insurance coverage.
7. Organic Crop Insurance: provides crop insurance for organic crops, including organic price elections, contract price addendums, and Whole Farm Revenue Protection.
8. Extension Risk Management Education Program: offers funding to organizations to help farmers learn the techniques, skills, and tools required to make knowledgeable risk management decisions.
9. Whole Farm Revenue Protection for Diversified Farms: provides revenue insurance for all crops on farms that protects against low yields and price drops, giving a risk management option for farmers.
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Food Safety Programs & Grants
1. Food Safety Outreach Program: Offers training on food safety requirements to farmers through grants given to non-profit organizations and academic institutions to organize the training.
2. Good Agricultural Practices and Good Handling Practices Audit Verification Program: voluntary and user-fee funded independent food safety audits that let produces sell to buyers that require food safety certification.
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Healthy Food Access Programs & Grants
1. Community Food Projects: offers competitve grants to local projects to advocate for community-based solutions for self-sufficiency and food security.
2. Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program: provides seniors access to fresh produce by supplying coupons that can be exchanged for produce from farmers markets, roadside stands, and community agriculture programs.
3. Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion Program: offers competitive grants to organizations to implement and increase marketing strategies and enterprises that store, process, and distribute locally and regionally produced food.
4. Farm to School Grants: provides competitive grants to farmers, public, private, and non-profit organizations to support the implementation of farm-to-school activities such as school meals, school gardens, food programs, agriculture, and nutrition.
5. WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Program: provides coupons or electronic benefits to pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding women to purchase local produce from authorized farmers and markets.
6. Gus Schumacher Nutrition Incentive Program: offers grants to agencies and organizations to help low-income consumers purchase fresh produce through cash incentives at farmers markets and grocery stores.
7. Healthy Food Financing Initiative: offers grants as well as technical assistance to food retail and food system enterprises that are looking to improve and expand access to healthy food in underserved areas.
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Local and Regional Food Systems Programs & Grants
1. Business and Industry Loan Guarantee Program's Local and Regional Food Enterprise Provision: offers federal loan guarantees to support and create enterprises that process, distribute, store, or market foods produced in a state or within 400 miles of the product's origin.
2. Farm Storage Facility Loans: offers low interest loans up to $500,000 for the development of production storage facilities and buildings used for equipment maintenance.
3. Microloans: provides loans up to $50,000 for operating expenses or real estate costs for small, beginning, or disadvantaged farmers.
4. Specialty Crop Block Grants Program: increases the competitiveness of produce through projects such as value-added processing, food hub development, farmer food safety training, and farm-to-school initiatives led by state departments of agriculture.
5. Value-Added Producer Grants: provides competitive grants to farmers to construct value-added farmer-owned businesses, including processing, market differentiation, local and regional supply networks, and improve food safety practices.
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Organic Production Programs & Grants
1. EQIP Organic Initiative: offers funds to organic producers that wish to address resource concerns by implementing conservation practices suited for organic producers.
2. Organic Certification Cost Share Program: offers cost-share assistance to organic farmers to help cover annual organic certification costs up to 75% with maximum payments of $750 per year per farm.
3. Organic Crop Insurance: provides crop insurance for organic crops, including organic price elections, contract price addendums, and Whole Farm Revenue Protection.
4. Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative: offers funding to administer research, education, and extension to address challenges faced by organic producers relating to production, processing, marketing, and conservation.
5. Organic Transitions Program: gives funds to academic institutions to conduct research, education, and extension that address challenges to transitioning to organic production and its environmental impacts.
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Renewable Energy Programs & Grants
1. Biomass Crop Assistance Program: provides incentives to assist farmers in growing bioenergy feedstocks and connect them with energy facilities to promote renewable energy production.
2. Rural Energy for America Program: provides grants and loans to allow farmers and businesses to buy renewable energy systems, improve energy efficiency, and undertake energy audits.
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Rural Development Programs & Grants
1. Business and Industry Loan Guarantee Program's Local and Regional Food Enterprise Provision: offers federal loan guarantees to support and create enterprises that process, distribute, store, or market foods produced in state or within 400 miles of the product's origin.
2. Rural Business Development Grant: offers funding for rural economic development projects such as planning, technical assistance, job training, and acquisition of land, capital, equipment.
3. Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program: provides loans and technical assistance to nonprofits, Indian tribes, and public higher education institutions to promote rural business development to distribute microloans and business development assistance to rural microentrepreneurs.
4. Value-Added Producer Grants: provides competitive grants to farmers to construct value-added farmer-owned businesses, including processing, market differentiation, local and regional supply networks, and improve food safety practices.
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Sustainable and Organic Research Programs & Grants
1. Sustainable Agriculture Systems Research Program: funds government researchers for research programs at many locations throughout the country using interdisciplinary research to focus on issues relevant to sustainable and organic farmers.
2. Agriculture and Food Research Initiative: offers grants to conduct agricultural research, education, and extension on challenges such as plant and animal health, food safety, climate change, food systems, and rural communities.
3. National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service/ ATTRA: offers free technical assistance and educational materials on sustainable and organic production for farmers through the ATTRA website and toll-free hotline.
4. Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative: offers funding to administer research, education, and extension to address challenges faced by organic producers relating to production, processing, marketing, and conservation.
5. Organic Transitions Program: gives funds to academic institutions to conduct research, education, and extension that address challenges to transitioning to organic production and its environmental impacts.
6. Specialty Crop Research Initiative: offers funding to public, private, and non-profit organizations to conduct research that intends to improve the viability and sustainability of produce and specialty crops.
7. Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education: provides funding for sustainable agriculture research via grants for research and education, farmer field projects, and extension and professional development.
