CFPs: Farmer Grant for Sustainable Agriculture Projects (US)

Farmer Grant projects address issues that affect farming with long-term sustainability in mind. Competitive proposals explore new ideas and techniques or apply known ideas in new ways or with new communities. A wide variety of topics can be funded by Northeast SARE, including agricultural marketing and business, crop production, raising livestock, aquaculture, social sustainability, climatesmart agriculture practices, urban and Indigenous agriculture and much more.

Funding Information

• Approximately $850,000 has been allocated to fund projects for this year’s Farmer Grants. Awards typically range from $5,000 to the maximum amount of $30,000, depending upon a project’s complexity and duration. Projects that are more complex include multi-farm collaboration, intensive education for other farmers and/or service providers, and/or replicated research over multiple years or locations. Simpler, straightforward proposals with modest budgets are equally encouraged.
• You should only request the amount of funding that is clearly necessary for the success of your project. Reviewers will select projects based on how well they address all the criteria in this Call for Proposals, including presenting a sound budget that adequately represents the work proposed.
• Project Duration: Projects typically run from 1-3 years. All projects must be completed by November 30, 2028.

Eligible Applicants 

• To be eligible to apply for a farmer grant, you must be a commercial farm business owner or farm employee:
  • Located in the Northeast region.
  • A commercial farm from which $1,000 or more of agricultural products were produced and sold, or normally would have been sold, during the census year. This grant program accepts all types and scales of farms – large or small scale, organic or conventional, urban or rural, full- or part-time, etc.
  • If you are applying as a farm employee, you must complete a Grant Commitment Form and ensure that it includes both your signature and the farm owner’s signature verifying they will be financially responsible for the project.
  • Farmers on farms affiliated with an institution or a nonprofit organization can apply if the farm produces and sells agricultural products that meet the farm definition above. For these proposals, you must use the name of the 501(c) organization in the proposal and complete a Grant Commitment Form.
  • Proposals are limited to one per farm per year.
  • A technical advisor is required for each project.
  • Current grant recipients who are behind in their reporting cannot apply. If you have a grant project that has ended or is near completion, finish it and file your final report; if your project is still in progress, make sure you have submitted a recent annual report.
  • Northeast SARE will not fund proposals that seem to duplicate work approved for funding by another grant program (within or external to SARE).
• Notes about eligibility: 
  • Northeast SARE encourages projects submitted from or in collaboration with women, the LGBTQIA+ community, and Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC). Additionally, they encourage projects submitted from or in collaboration with Minority Serving Institutions (including 1890s and other historically Black colleges and universities, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, and tribal colleges and universities) and other organizations in the Northeast that work with historically underserved communities.

For more information, visit SARE.