California now has four programs that provide grants to farmers and ranchers for reducing greenhouse gases on their operations. CalCAN has long been a champion of all four and influences their funding levels and design.

In a new series of CalCAN fact sheets, we summarize the impact of these programs and provide profiles of some innovative projects. The programs include:

1. Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Program that funds permanent easements on agricultural land and limits sprawl development
2. State Water Efficiency & Enhancement Program (SWEEP) that gives grants for improved water and energy efficiency
3. Alternative Manure Management Program (AMMP) that supports methane-reducing manure management practices on livestock operations
4. Healthy Soils Program that provides cost sharing for soil management practices that reduce GHG emissions and sequester carbon

To date, these four Climate Smart Agriculture programs have collectively:

• Funded climate-beneficial projects on almost 750 farms and ranches in 49 counties
• Permanently conserved almost 80,000 acres of agricultural land
• Saved at least 28 billion gallons of water annually
• Reduced California’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by more than 42.5 million metric tons of CO₂e emissions over the life of the projects, equivalent to removing more than 9.1 million passenger vehicles from the road for one year
• Provided a host of co-benefits for the health of our communities, economies, and environment in California

The fact sheets profile several grantees of each program, sharing the stories of farmer, ranchers, and land trusts leveraging state funds for important shifts toward climate-beneficial agriculture. Several maps detail the geographic spread of these on-the-ground projects throughout California, including regional breakdowns of farmland acreage preserved and Climate Smart Agriculture monies awarded.

Check out the fact sheets here.

If you are a grant awardee of any of these programs and would like a chance to share your story with us, drop us a line at info@calclimateag.org.