USDA Invests in Innovative Projects that Help Conserve Natural Resources and Address Climate Change
Government
USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is awarding more than $69.7 million for CIG On-Farm Trials projects and more than $20.2 million for CIG Classic projects. Secretary Vilsack announced the CIG grants during an Investing in America roundtable in Pennsylvania while highlighting USDA programs focused on innovative climate strategies. In total, the Inflation Reduction Act provides $19.5 billion over five years to support USDA’s oversubscribed conservation programs, including CIG grants.
Two awarded CIG projects will take place in Pennsylvania. One will empower farmers to make innovative and holistic farm management decisions to improve nutrient management in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The other will deploy precision ag technology to measure forage availability on dairy farms and provide the technical assistance, data collection and evaluation of both economic and conservation impacts of using the technology. This assistance and information is intended to help farmers transition from continuous grazing to managed grazing.
NRCS is committed to the success of all of our nation’s producers, businesses, and partners. Some of our nation's producers belong to communities that have been or are marginalized in ways that have diminished their ability to farm and ranch successfully. These producers play a vital role in securing a healthy agricultural economy for our country and protecting, enhancing, and sustaining our valuable natural resources. NRCS encourages proposal submissions from entities that represent, are partnered with, or are composed entirely of producers belonging to such communities.
More About the Conservation Innovation Grants Program
Through creative problem solving and innovation, CIG partners work to address our nation's water quality, water quantity, air quality, soil health and wildlife habitat challenges, all while improving agricultural operations.
The national CIG program has two parts: CIG On-Farm Conservation Innovation Trials and CIG Classic. Through CIG Classic, partners develop new tools, technologies, and strategies to support next-generation conservation efforts on working lands and develop market-based solutions to resource challenges. For CIG Classic, this year’s funding priorities were:
- Forestry
- Habitat Conservation and Restoration for Wildlife and Invertebrates
- Managing Agricultural Lands to Improve Local Water Quality
- Energy Conservation
- Economics
- Strengthening Conservation through Indigenous Knowledge
CIG On-Farm Trials projects feature collaboration between NRCS and partners to implement on-the-ground conservation activities and then evaluate their impact. CIG On-Farm Trials support more widespread adoption and evaluation of innovative conservation approaches in partnership with agricultural producers. Incentive payments are provided to producers to offset the risk of implementing innovative approaches. For CIG On-Farm Trials, this year’s funding priorities were:
- Feeding Management and Enteric Methane Reduction
- Irrigation Water Management Technologies
- Nutrient Management
- Grazing Lands
- Soil Health Demo Trials
The Soil Health Demonstration Trial (SHD) component of CIG On-Farm Trials exclusively focuses on adoption of conservation practices and implementation of systems that improve soil health and contribute to the Inflation Reduction Act goals of increasing carbon capture and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
A critical element of each CIG On-Farm Trials project is the project evaluation. Partners must propose robust scientific approaches to their CIG On-Farm Trials, resulting in data and analyses of the environmental, financial and, to the extent possible, social impacts of the trials. NRCS will use the results of CIG On-Farm Trial project evaluations and analyses to explore the development of new NRCS conservation assistance, guidance documents, technical tools, and conservation practice standards, or modifications to existing ones. For example, CIG partners worked to develop and test an irrigation water management tool for farmers, called Irrigator Pro. What started as a cloud-based platform can now be used as a smart phone app to help farmers determine when to irrigate for optimal crop growth while conserving water resources and minimizing irrigation costs.