SACRAMENTO, July 30, 2019 – The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is now accepting applications for 2019 Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) Technical Assistance Funding.  Funds awarded through this competitive grant process will be distributed to Resource Conservation Districts, the University of California Cooperative Extension, and nonprofit organizations with demonstrated technical expertise in designing and implementing agricultural management practices to support CDFA’s 2019 CSA incentive programs.

Eligible organizations may request up to $120,000 to provide technical assistance to potential applicants and awardees of the Alternative Manure Management Program (AMMP) and the Healthy Soils Program (HSP). A description of the technical assistance program and links to the application materials can be found on CDFA’s Technical Assistance page.

Applications are due August 30, 2019 at 5 p.m. PT. Late applications will not be accepted.

“Our technical assistance partners have proven so valuable to the success of the Climate Smart Agriculture Programs,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross, “I’m pleased we can expand their roles, continue to use their expertise and provide ongoing technical assistance for three years to farmers and ranchers in California.”

Technical Assistance Funding Varies by Program

As we explained on our blog last week, this new technical assistance program is the result of AB 2377 (Irwin), legislation that CalCAN sponsored in 2018. Starting with this current fiscal year (FY 2019-20), at least five percent of the funding for HSP, AMMP, and SWEEP will go to the technical assistance program. Here’s what that means for this first round of technical assistance grants:

Healthy Soils Program (HSP): HSP received $28 million in the FY 2019-20 budget, so at least $1.4 million will be available for technical assistance grants to support HSP.

Alternative Manure Management Program (AMMP): CDFA received $34 million for the FY 2019-20 budget for two dairy methane programs: AMMP and the Dairy Digester Research & Development Program. Because the split in funding for  those two programs is to be determined by the Secretary, the funding available for technical assistance for AMMP is also TBD, but it will be no less than 5% of the total AMMP allocation.

State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program: TheFY 2019-20 budget cut funding for SWEEP. Consequently, there will be no technical assistance funding available for SWEEP available through this RFP.