Deadline: 19-Jul-21
The U.S. Department of Agriculture – Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) is seeking applications for the 2021 NRCS’s Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) Classic Program.
The purpose of CIG is to stimulate the development and adoption of innovative conservation approaches and technologies in conjunction with agricultural production.
CIG projects are expected to lead to the transfer of conservation technologies, management systems, and innovative approaches (such as market-based systems) to agricultural producers, into technical manuals and guides, or to the private sector.
CIG generally funds pilot projects, field demonstrations, and on-farm conservation research. On-farm conservation research means an investigation conducted to answer a specific applied conservation question using a statistically valid design while employing farmscale equipment on farms, ranches, or private forest lands.
Priorities
NRCS accepts proposals that address one or more of the priorities listed below. Each proposal must clearly identify a primary priority. The primary priority selected by an applicant will determine which expert peer panel will review the application.
- Water Resources and Increased Resilience: Climate-Smart Strategies – Climate change has exacerbated many water resource and agricultural production issues for agricultural producers with regional-specific issues emerging due to localized climate impacts. For example, in the West, increased wildfire activity results in higher levels of dissolved solids in some drinking water reservoirs.
- Soil Health: Climate Mitigation, Adaptation, and Resilience – Encouraging voluntary adoption of climate-smart agricultural systems and practices that result in measurable and verifiable carbon reductions and sequestration is critical to helping the agricultural sector contribute to climate change mitigation. The same systems and practices can also help producers adapt to changing climate patterns by increasing the resilience of their operations.
- Nutrient Management: Improving Nutrient Management Adoption to Meet Watershed or Regional Water Quality Goals – Addressing nutrient management issues in agricultural settings continues to be challenging. Farmers wrestle with balancing water quality impacts with agricultural production and farm income goals. It is difficult to effectively target existing technologies, strategies, and management practices on a watershed or groundwater resource scale to measurably improve water quality.
- Grazing Lands Conservation: Livestock grazing on range and pasture lands is going through a transition as new technology and tools become available. There is great opportunity to fast track innovative tools and technologies for data collection and management and to demonstrate their importance to grazing land management. Through this priority area, NRCS seeks to demonstrate and facilitate the delivery of new tools, technologies, and strategies that can assist in the improvement and the management of both rangelands and pasturelands in the United States.
- Increasing Conservation Adoption: NRCS Conservation Effects Assessment Project data and analyses show that many farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners implement conservation measures as part of their production system. At the same time, the pace and scale of conservation adoption on working lands must be increased to sufficiently address more persistent natural resource challenges.
Funding Information
- Estimated Funding: The total amount of Federal funding the agency expects to award through this opportunity is $15 million.
- Start Dates and Performance Periods: Projects may be from one (1) to three (3) years in duration. Applicants should plan their projects based on an estimated project start date of March 1, 2022.
- Number of Awards: The agency expects to make between 15 and 25 awards.
Innovative Conservation Projects or Activities
CIG funds the development and field testing, on-farm research and demonstration, evaluation, or implementation of:
- Approaches to incentivizing conservation adoption, including market-based and conservation finance approaches, and
- Conservation technologies, practices, and systems.
Projects or activities under CIG must:
- Comply with all applicable Federal, Tribal, State, and local laws and regulations throughout the duration of the project,
- Use a technology or approach that was studied sufficiently to indicate a high probability for success,
- Demonstrate, evaluate, and verify the effectiveness, utility, affordability, and usability of natural resource conservation technologies and approaches in the field,
- Adapt and transfer conservation technologies, management practices, systems, approaches, and incentive systems to improve performance and encourage adoption, and
- Introduce proven conservation technologies and approaches to a geographic area or agricultural sector where that technology or approach is not currently in use.
- 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.
- All U.S.-based non-Federal entities (NFE) and individuals, with the exception of Federal agencies, are eligible to apply for projects carried out in the United States. “U.S.-based” includes any of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Caribbean Area (Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands), and the Pacific Islands Area (Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands).
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=333631