Proposals for On-Farm Conservation Innovation Trials (On-Farm Trials) are currently being accepted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in California. On-Farm Trials are part of the Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) program to support modern approaches to conservation. NRCS State Conservationist in California, Carlos Suarez told AgNet West that the agency partners with a variety of entities through the CIG program.
“It can be non-government organizations, academia, environmental organizations, and ag groups to implement practices that may not have been tested in the past or they are cutting edge technology to put more conservation on the ground. What we did with this CIG is provide funding to support the testing and on the ground trialing of these technologies,” Suarez noted. “In most cases, once those trials go through fruition, and we evaluate the affect, some of those trials become part of our standard conservation practices that we utilize to assist farmers and ranchers.”
Incentive payments are provided to producers to help offset some of the risk of trialing new conservation approaches. A total of up to $400,000 in funding is being available for the CIG competition in Fiscal Year 2022. “The projects may be between one to three years in duration with a maximum award in this fiscal year to be $150,000 per project,” said Suarez.
Projects may be watershed-based, regional, multi-state or nationwide in scope. A crucial component of On-Farm Trials is recordkeeping and evaluation of the project. Data will need to be tracked related to environmental, financial, and social impacts of the practice being implemented.
California CIG application packages for On-Farm Trials are due by 11:59 pm Pacific Standard Time (PST) on June 1. Applications are required to be submitted electronically through Grants.gov. NRCS anticipates making selections by June 30 and expects to execute awards by August 19.
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