U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced the first round of funding through the new Climate-Smart Commodities Partnerships garnered more than 450 proposals, ranging from $5 million to $100 million each.
According to a May 10 USDA news release, the applications came from more than 350 groups, including nonprofit, for profit and government entities; farmer cooperatives; conservation; energy and environmental groups; state, tribal and local governments; universities; small businesses; and large corporations.
“The Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities funding opportunity has created tremendous interest from a diverse cross-section of groups from across the country," Vilsack said in the release. "As we review the applications received in this first round of funding, we're looking forward to seeing the details of the projects proposed and hope we have a similar application response in the second round.”
The requests spanned every state in the nation, as well as tribal lands, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico, demonstrating the wide geographic scope of this need, according to the release. Applications for the first set of funding include large-scale pilot projects highlighting the greenhouse gas utilities of climate smart commodity manufacturing and immediate and significant benefits to a cross section of production agriculture, including small and/or historically underserved producers, according to the release.
A few days before the first deadline, a targeted informational webinar on all aspects of the funding opportunity was announced with more than 1,000 registrants and recorded and posted on the USDA website for many more to view, according to the release. USDA also planned six meet-and-greet webinars, with a special opportunity for partners from all locations to come together and share or seek funding opportunity expertise.
According to the release, the deadline for the second round of funding is 11:59 p.m. ET June 10.
