{"id":27002,"date":"2022-12-20T02:49:34","date_gmt":"2022-12-20T07:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=27002"},"modified":"2022-12-20T14:47:51","modified_gmt":"2022-12-20T19:47:51","slug":"department-issues-request-for-grant-proposals-for-new-healthy-soils-competitive-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2022\/12\/20\/department-issues-request-for-grant-proposals-for-new-healthy-soils-competitive-fund\/","title":{"rendered":"Department Issues Request for Grant Proposals for New Healthy Soils Competitive Fund"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mda.maryland.gov\/resource_conservation\/counties\/MDA_HealthySoil_Bnr212247_lr.jpg?w=760&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Meet the farmers and conservation professionals\" \/><\/p>\n<p><b>ANNAPOLIS, MD (December 20, 2022) \u2013<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0The Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) will accept grant applications for its new Healthy Soils Competitive Fund beginning January 3, 2023. This unique program provides financial assistance to qualifying farmers and organizations to adopt conservation practices that benefit the climate, soil, and water.Maryland farmers and organizations with innovative conservation ideas are encouraged to apply for these grants.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Successful applicants will receive up to $50,000 to support 3 years of enhanced healthy soil practices. Funds are available to farmers or organizations that want to manage the following practices in innovative ways:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Cover Crops<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Conservation Tillage<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pasture and Hay Planting<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Conservation Cover\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Critical Area Planting<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Conservation Crop Rotation<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nutrient Management<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Integrated Pest Management<\/span>&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200bThe following Agroforestry practices are also available for funding:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u200bAlley Cropping<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Hedgerow Planting\u200b<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Windbreak\/Shelterbelt Establishment<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Silvopasture<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tree and Shrub Establishment<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u200bGrants provided by the Healthy Soils Competitive Fund may also be used to purchase equipment that supports the adoption of soil health practices. In addition, the grants cover research and administrative costs for organizations that provide technical support to producers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Funding for Maryland\u2019s Health Soils Competitive Fund is provided by the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund. Farm size is not a consideration for grant approval. There are no minimum or maximum acreage requirements. Grant recipients will receive 20% of the funds upfront, with the remainder distributed annually upon verification of progress.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This program was developed based on recommendations of Maryland\u2019s Soil Health Advisory Committee. Grant applications are available on the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mda.maryland.gov\/resource_conservation\/Pages\/Soil-Health.aspx\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">website<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. They should be submitted to MDA by 5 p.m. on March 3, 2023. Grant recipients will be notified by April 30, 2023.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For more information, please get in touch with Kevin Antoszewski at <\/span><a href=\"mailto:kevin.antoszewski@maryland.gov\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">kevin.antoszewski@maryland.gov<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> or 410-841-5866.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">###<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Follow Maryland Department of Agriculture on Twitter\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MdAgDept\/status\/1419753775548583945\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">@MdAgDept<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ANNAPOLIS, MD (December 20, 2022) \u2013\u00a0The Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) will accept grant applications for its new Healthy Soils Competitive Fund beginning January 3, 2023. This unique program provides financial assistance to qualifying farmers and organizations to adopt conservation practices that benefit the climate, soil, and water.Maryland farmers and organizations with innovative conservation ideas<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2022\/12\/20\/department-issues-request-for-grant-proposals-for-new-healthy-soils-competitive-fund\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":222,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/222"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27002"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27004,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27002\/revisions\/27004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}