{"id":29915,"date":"2026-07-13T12:22:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T16:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/?p=29915"},"modified":"2026-07-13T12:22:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T16:22:32","slug":"maryland-department-of-agriculture-invests-670000-in-innovative-soil-health-and-agroforestry-practices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2026\/07\/13\/maryland-department-of-agriculture-invests-670000-in-innovative-soil-health-and-agroforestry-practices\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland Department of Agriculture Invests $670,000 in Innovative Soil Health and Agroforestry Practices"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>ANNAPOLIS, MD (July 13, 2026)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2014 The Maryland Department of Agriculture today announced $670,000 in grant funding to assist farms and organizations in adopting conservation practices that benefit the climate, soil and water.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Healthy Soils Competitive Fund awards grants of up to $50,000 to qualifying applicants to support three years of enhanced soil health and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usda.gov\/forestry\/agroforestry\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">agroforestry<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> practices. It was established in 2023 following recommendations from the Soil Health Advisory Committee.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Nineteen projects across the state of Maryland will implement the following innovative conservation practices and share progress updates throughout the grant period:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Baltimore City: Development of soil health resources for equestrians.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Baltimore County: Pollinator habitat and conservation cover enhancement project.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Calvert County: Use of innovative equipment to enhance adaptive grazing.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Caroline County: Agroforestry and pasture improvements for enhanced adaptive grazing.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Carroll County: Innovative use of a roller crimper for expanded cover cropping and delayed termination.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Charles County: Establishment of an alley cropping system in a culturally significant vegetable operation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Frederick County: Agroforestry, reduced tillage in vegetable production and innovative equipment to enhance adaptive grazing.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Harford County: Soil biology analysis and trailing compost extraction project.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Howard County: Establishment of a silvopasture and improved adaptive grazing systems for an equestrian operation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Prince George\u2019s County: Alley cropping and reduced tillage systems for vegetable production.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Washington County: Implementation of an agroforestry project.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&#8220;Healthy soils are the foundation of productive farms, thriving ecosystems and long-term resilience,&#8221; said Maryland Secretary of Agriculture Kevin Atticks. &#8220;It&#8217;s exciting to see more Maryland farmers embracing innovative conservation practices each year. With applications increasing more than 16% over last year, this program is helping producers invest in practices that strengthen their operations while protecting our natural resources for future generations.&#8221;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since its inception, the grant program has supported 88 projects across the state. Funding for the Healthy Soils Competitive Fund is made possible through the Moore-Miller Administration\u2019s implementation of the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/mgaleg.maryland.gov\/mgawebsite\/Legislation\/Details\/sb0528?ys=2022RS\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Climate Solutions Now Act<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.epa.gov\/inflation-reduction-act\/climate-pollution-reduction-grants\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Climate Pollution Reduction Grant <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">awarded to the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/nicholasinstitute.duke.edu\/project\/atlantic-conservation-coalition\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Atlantic Conservation Coalition<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The 2026-2027 grant cycle will open in November 2026. For more information about the program and the most up-to-date information, please visit our <\/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\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">###<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ANNAPOLIS, MD (July 13, 2026)\u2014 The Maryland Department of Agriculture today announced $670,000 in grant funding to assist farms and organizations in adopting conservation practices that benefit the climate, soil and water.\u00a0 The Healthy Soils Competitive Fund awards grants of up to $50,000 to qualifying applicants to support three years of enhanced soil health and<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/press-release\/2026\/07\/13\/maryland-department-of-agriculture-invests-670000-in-innovative-soil-health-and-agroforestry-practices\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":283,"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_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[403,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mda-newsroom","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\/29915","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\/283"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29915"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29916,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29915\/revisions\/29916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/mda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}