MDA’s Small Farm and Urban Agriculture Program is currently offering Small Farm Cover Crop Program grants. Other grant programs are currently under development.
This Program is the first in a series of statewide financial assistance programs to be introduced by the Small Farm and Urban Agriculture Program. It provides needed financial and technical assistance to support small-scale farms located in urban, peri-urban, rural, and suburban areas. Its goal is to increase community access to healthy foods by helping farmers improve their management of natural resources by adopting Bay-friendly and climate-smart farming practices.
Urban and small-scale producers who may not qualify for traditional cover crop programs are encouraged to apply for these small farm cover crop grants. Here are the program highlights:
- Urban agricultural growers and small farmers who plant five (5) or fewer acres of a cover crop may apply for our cover crop grants.
- Eligible species to be planted include cover crop seed mixes or single cereal grains.
- Cover crops may be planted in open plots, raised beds, or a high tunnel following the harvest of a production crop (vegetables, herbs, flowers, sorghum, soybeans, hemp, millet, or tobacco).
- Growers should plant fall cover crops following seed company recommendations, but no later than November 30, 2022.
- Growers will be reimbursed based on paid receipts with a maximum payment of up to $1,000 per growing season.
- Please download an application, instructions, and agreement from the right panel.
FUNDING
This program is funded by the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund and managed by the department’s Conservation Grants Program.
