Federal grant programs / Department of Agriculture

Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities (10.937)

Also known as Advancing Markets for Producers (Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities)

• Awarded, FY 2021 to 2025$2.5 billion
• Grant awards127
• Typical award$5.4 million
• Awarded in FY 2025$69.5 million
• Size rank139 of 1824
• Type of assistanceGrant

Key findings

• It is the 139th largest of 1,824 federal grant programs by five-year awards.
• The 20 largest recipients received 55% of the money.
• Awards went to recipients in 42 states and territories.

What the program funds

The Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities opportunity was renamed as the Advancing Markets for Producers initiative in Fiscal Year (FY) 2025. The initiative aims to achieve the following outcomes through a variety of pilot projects: • Prioritize producer support to develop sustained methods for expansion of markets for American agricultural products; prioritizing new markets, improving supply chains, and enable direct-to consumer sales, thereby improving economic opportunities for farmers; • Prioritize methods to improve farmers collective resource sharing, access to market infrastructure, and promotion of long-term economic sustainability within the amplification of market expansion.

From the federal Assistance Listing. Read the full listing on SAM.gov.

Open opportunities

No opportunity under this program is open or forecast on Grants.gov right now. Programs often post once a year, so the funding history below shows what to expect.

Rules from the program listing

Who can apply

Eligibility was further restricted to domestic applicants. Applicants and applications met eligibility criteria by the application deadline to be considered for award. Eligible applicant type is consistent with the statutory authority for this funding opportunity. Applicant entities identified in the SAM.gov exclusions database as ineligible, prohibited/restricted, or excluded from receiving Federal contracts and certain Federal assistance and benefits were considered for Federal funding, as applicable to the funding being requested under this Federal program (2 CFR 200.206(d)). The primary applicant demonstrated an existing relationship with and/or prior experience working with producers or landowners. Additionally, at minimum one project partner had existing experience working with underserved producers or landowners. This information was used when evaluating the application in the equity criteria. Individuals, including individual agricultural producers, farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners, may also be eligible as subrecipients but may not be the primary applicant/recipient. Recipients may only enroll agricultural producers and landowners who are compliant with highly erodible land (HEL) and wetland conservation (WC) requirements as described under 7 CFR part 12. Awards made pursuant to the relevant NOFO are not subject to any payment limitations.

Continue reading on SAM.gov

What the money can and cannot pay for

Financial assistance may be used for activities that support implementation of production practices, activities, and systems on working lands; measurement, quantification and monitoring of the benefits associated with those practices; and market development and promotion of the resulting commodities. Technical assistance, except for Highly Erodible Land (HEL) and Wetland Conservation (WC) determinations, is not provided and will need to be provided by the recipient.

Matching requirements

This program has no statutory formula. There is not a specific match requirement. However, applications were evaluated, in part, on the relative contribution of non-Federal resources to the project. Cost sharing may be achieved with contributions of cash, services, materials, equipment, or third-party in-kind contributions. USDA values the importance of partners contributing to projects; the magnitude and quality of matching funds was a part of the evaluation criteria. However, the ability to secure a non-Federal match is not a barrier to participation. Refer to the relevant NOFO for information about any required submittals related to match or cost-share requirements and a description of how a voluntary match was evaluated. MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.MOE requirements are not applicable to this assistance listing.

Deadlines

Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFO) for this listing will be posted on Grants.gov. The NOFO contains all pertinent deadlines.

Award range and average, in the agency's words

The Federal funding agency awarded $2.8 billion in Fiscal Year FY23 and $236 million in FY24 and the agency expects to obligate an additional $200 million in FY25 through finalizing awards and additional amendments.

Examples of funded projects

Fiscal Year2025: A subset of the funded projects received additional funding to accommodate budget increases needed for additional, necessary technical assistance and outreach, enrolling producers who have limited access to markets, expanding commodity markets, providing additional reporting assistance, other items justified to expand benchmarks within the grant, and any associated administrative costs resulting from the increased funding and application of the updates to the 2 CFR 200 regulation.

Quoted from the program's federal Assistance Listing. The notice of funding opportunity is the official source for each competition's rules.

Who usually wins

Nonprofits received 45% of the money, businesses 23% and colleges and universities 23%.

By state

41 states have a page for this program: those that received at least $1 million or 10 awards.

Award amounts are federal obligations reported to USAspending.gov for fiscal 2021 to 2025; see how our data works.