Funding For USDA Launched The Increasing Land, Capital & Market Access Program
USDA launched the Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access (Increasing Land Access) Program to help underserved producers by increasing land, capital, and market access. The program will fund cooperative agreements or grants for projects that help move underserved producers from surviving to thriving.
Land access is critical to the success of agriculture. Underserved producers have not received the amount of specialized technical support that would benefit the launch, growth, resilience, and success of their agricultural enterprises. The Increasing Land Access Program is intended to address this problem by increasing access to farm ownership opportunities, increasing access and improving results for those with heirs’ property or fractionated land, increasing access to markets and capital that affect the ability to access land, and increasing land ownership, land succession, and agricultural business planning.
Section 1006 of the American Rescue Plan Act, as amended by Section 22007 of the Inflation Reduction Act, included these provisions for USDA to ensure underserved producers have resources, tools, programs, and technical support they need to succeed.
How to Apply
Funding is available to various government entities from local to Tribal, not-for-profit educational institutions, and non-profit organizations. The non-profit organizations can include Community Development Financial Institutions, foundations, and Tribal financial institutions with a 501c3 status. Individuals, non-domestic entities, and private, for-profit organizations are not eligible to apply.
Eligible applicants can apply through grants.gov, and must submit their applications by 11:59 p.m. eastern time on October 28, 2022.
USDA anticipates making selections by late fall 2022 and awarding funds by January 2023.
Resources and Additional Information
Program questions can be directed to Land.Access@usda.gov.
Webinar Opportunity
A webinar with more detailed information on the Increasing Land Access Program is scheduled for September 7, 2022, at 4:00pm EST. Register for the webinar here.