Deadline: 15-Feb-22
The application period for the 2022/23 Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (SAREP) Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems Small Grants Program is now open.
SAREP invites proposals for small grants to fund pilot projects and research projects that support California’s farmers, ranchers, and land stewards and/or rural, urban, and Tribal communities to plan, implement, or evaluate sustainable agriculture or food systems strategies.
The UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (UC SAREP) is a statewide program of University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR). UC SAREP envisions a food and farming system that:
- supports resilience through diversified production, marketing, and distribution systems,
- values all food system workers and supports their physical, economic, and social wellbeing,
- contributes to the health and vitality of urban, rural, and Tribal communities,
- is environmentally regenerative, using resources for production and distribution in a way that protects the environment in trust for future generations, including under changing climate conditions, and
- is culturally responsive and reflects the ethnic, linguistic, and cultural diversity of California.
Priority Areas
UC SAREP will fund projects that fall within two priority areas:
- Support California’s farmers, ranchers, and land stewards of all scales in identifying, piloting, and transitioning to:
- environmentally regenerative approaches to producing crops and livestock (including but not limited to soil health, organic and agroecological practices, integrated pest management, crop diversification);
- pathways for realizing economic return from ecologically-sound crop management practices and fair labor practices;
- marketing and distribution strategies that support diversified, decentralized, and locally self-organized supply chains;
- strategies that promote producer-to-producer networking and producer-to-supply chain networking
- Support California’s rural, urban, and Tribal communities to identify, implement, and evaluate strategies to:
- expand access to healthy, sustainably produced, culturally appropriate foods;
- ensure worker wellbeing across the food chain;
- minimize the community and environmental costs of food production and distribution;
- strengthen connections between consumers and producers;
- establish and strengthen producer-to-producer connections and producer-to-supply chain connections
Funding Information
Total funding will be approximately $80,000. Individual grants will be limited to a maximum of $10,000, with one Applied Research Grant awarded up to $20,000. Grantees will be notified by March 28, 2022. Due to the limited funds available, only one-year projects will be considered. Projects may begin as soon as June 1, 2022 and must be completed by May 31, 2023.
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible applicants include farm or food system businesses operating in California, non-profit, tax-exempt organizations operating in California, state and local government agencies, tribal governments, and California public and private institutions of higher education. UC SAREP staff are not eligible to participate on the team of any project.
For more information, visit https://sarep.ucdavis.edu/grantsFY21-22
