A USDA-funded program is offering Producer Grants of up to $20,000 for individual farmers and $25,000 for groups.
The grants are administered through the Southern Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education, or SARE, program. This is one of several types of grants that are offered by the program. The Producer Grant is meant to help farmers and ranchers conduct hands-on research and find innovative solutions for problems they face.
“The program was designed to provide funds, congressionally mandated funds, to researchers, farmers, other producers [and] NGOs to do work on sustainable agriculture,” Jim Jordan, the head of the Southern SARE program, said.
Jordan said sustainable agriculture is like a three-legged stool. It must protect land, air and water resources and quality; have a positive impact on rural communities; and be economically profitable.
There are four regional SARE programs, one that serves the northeast, north central, southern and western parts of the U.S. The southern program is based at the University of Georgia, where Jordan works.
Ian Daniel, a livestock expert at University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, said the goal of the grant is for farmers to share what efforts worked and didn’t work to find industry-wide solutions.
“What this organization wants to see is somebody that has an idea that has not been funded in the past. An idea that, if you test it and you have great results, then it can be a problem solver for many other farmers going forward,” Daniel said.
To Daniel, this is an opportunity for farmers who work with small ruminants, or little, hoofed herbivores, to find solutions to problems they face. Small ruminant farming is an area of interest for him.
To Jordan, the more applicants, the merrier.
“The more projects we get in, the better chance of finding really good ones,” Jordan said. “We certainly encourage farmers particularly to apply to the program and to give us their ideas about what needs to be done on the farm.”
Along with the Producer Grants, the program is also offering On-Farm Research Grants for agriculture professionals looking to work directly with farmers. More information about both grants, including tips on how to apply, are available at the program’s website.
Proposals for the Producer Grants are due on November 6 at 1 p.m., and selected proposals will be announced in February.
