U.S. Department of Agriculture announced $325 million for pilot projects to expand opportunities for small and underserved food productions.
The additional funds for 71 projects in second-round funding identified through USDA's Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities brings the total investment in both rounds to more than $3.1 billion, according to USDA's Dec. 12 news release.
"Expanding opportunities for small and underserved producers is a key goal of Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities," Vilsack said in the release. "Small and underserved producers are facing the impacts of climate change head on, with limited resources, and have the most to gain from leveraging the growing market demand for agricultural goods produced in a sustainable, climate-smart way."
The billions in funding for both rounds has already been earmarked for 141 tentatively selected projects with an eye toward expanding markets for U.S. producers of "climate-smart commodities," the news release said. The selected programs include small and underserved producers.
Both rounds of Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities funding opportunities attracted more than 1,000 proposals from more than 700 entities. Those proposals came in from nonprofits; for-profits and government entities; farm cooperatives; conservation, energy and environmental groups; state, Tribal and local governments; universities; small businesses; and large corporations, the release reported.
"Our goal is to expand markets for climate-smart commodities and ensure that small and underserved producers reap the benefits of these market opportunities," Vilsack added, according to the release.
Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities projects include "a diverse range of project partners" that include more than 30 minority-serving institutions and more than 20 Tribal partners, including "many groups focused on working with small and underserved producers," the news release said.
