The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), an agency under the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is announcing the potential availability of funding for agreements for the purpose of leveraging NRCS resources, addressing local natural resource issues, encouraging collaboration and developing state-and-community-level conservation leadership.
Donor Name: U.S. Department of Agriculture
State: Texas
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 04/24/2023
Size of the Grant: $200,000
Grant Duration: 3 years
Details:
Purpose of the Program
The purpose of the Texas Partners for Conservation funding is to leverage NRCS and partner resources in applying voluntary conservation throughout Texas. This program is intended to provide NRCS workload assistance.
Priorities Overview
- Outreach & Education to Historically Underserved Producers/Clients
- Increase outreach to historically underserved agriculture producers
- Expand Conservation Technical Assistance to increase conservation planning and promote USDA NRCS Farm Bill programs
- Farm Bill Operations
- Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry – support delivery of conservation practices that provide quantifiable carbon sequestration and/or greenhouse gas reductions
- Urban and Small Farm Agriculture – conservation technical assistance and training
- Increase field office capacity to assist historically underserved agriculture producers with conservation planning and implementation of conservation practices
- Conservation Technical Assistance –
- Expand Conservation Technical Assistance to private landowners
- Increase capacity for landscape planning and application to include Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, Watershed Operations, and Emergency Watershed Protection programs
Priorities
Outreach and Education to Historically Underserved Producers/Clients Priorities
- Provide direct technical assistance and increase conservation planning and financial assistance participation of Historically Underserved Farmers and Ranchers
- Agriculture conservation mentoring and direct assistance to historically underserved communities
- Conduct field day outreach events within each of the 5 NRCS zones (a minimum of two per zone) to increase conservation program participation focusing on historically underserved producers. Events will showcase information to improve producer profitability by training on business plan development, basic agriculture operations, NRCS conservation technical and financial assistance while providing information on how to receive assistance.
- Training for NRCS employees to better serve the historically underserved.
- Training focused to increase NRCS staff skills in optimizing service to diverse customers
- Multiple trainings provided across Texas with at least one within each of the five NRCS administrative zones
Farm Bill Operations Priorities
- Climate Smart Agriculture
- Promote Climate Smart Agriculture and Forestry on Texas private lands
- Innovative use of climate smart conservation practices
- Demonstration sites featuring climate smart conservation practices in action, outreach and field day events promoting the adoption of the practices, development of technical information to promote the use of the practices
- Farm to table events showcasing climate smart agriculture and forestry conservation
- Comprehensive soil health assessments evaluating physical, chemical and biological properties of soil
Funding Information
- Estimated Total Funding Amount: $700,000
- Maximum Funding Amount: $200,000
- Minimum Funding Amount: $25,000
- Projects may be between 1 and 3 years in duration.
Eligible Applicants
- Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
- Private institutions of higher education
- State governments
- City or township governments
- Special district governments
- Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized)
- Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education
- Public and State controlled institutions of higher education
- County governments
- Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments)
For more information, visit Grants.gov.