Idaho school’s USDA grant for farmers terminated

Millions of dollars in grant funding for Idaho farmers to develop sustainable agricultural practices was eliminated last week due to switching of criteria at the federal level.

The USDA terminated the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities (PCSC) program ― which was awarded to Idaho growers through the University of Idaho ― and developed new criteria to relaunch the grant as the Advancing Markets for Producers (AMP) initiative.

Funds from the PCSC “included nearly $59 million for U of I’s Innovative Agriculture and Marketing Partnership (IAMP) project,” the school stated in a release.

According to U of I, the USDA recently identified new criteria to evaluate “climate-smart” grants, one of which is that at least 65% of funds must go directly to producers. Under IAMP, producers received more than 50% of funding and the rest of the funds went toward technical and marketing services to those producers to save them extra contracting costs.

U of I has until June 20 to resubmit a proposal to adjust for the new criteria.

“While we are disappointed by the USDA decision to terminate the IAMP grant, we are thankful for the opportunity to resubmit our proposal,” said Sanford Eigenbrode, co-director for IAMP. “The objectives of the IAMP project are in line with the expected guidelines from USDA/NRCS and their Farmer First priorities, and we are in a good position to reconfigure the project to meet those guidelines.”

IAMP stated that, as of March, it had received applications from 201 Idaho producers from 27 counties in the state. It added that several producers had completed the necessary paperwork and were in enrolled, while others were in the final stages of doing such.

U of I said that the USDA announced in a press release about the cancellation that it was “committed to honoring all eligible expenses incurred prior to April 13.” The school is in contact with several producers and its implementation partners to make sure all eligible expenses are reimbursed.