The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced the availability of $14 million in grant funds to help launch new and expand existing programs to train beginning farmers and ranchers. These federal grants will be awarded through the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP), which was newly reauthorized in the 2018 Farm Bill. To date, BFRDP remains the only USDA program specifically dedicated to training the next generation of America’s farmers and ranchers.
USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), which administers BFRDP, released Requests for Applications (RFA) for fiscal year (FY) 2019 and 2020 last week. Organizations interested in applying for grant funding must submit an electronic application through Grants.gov by 5:00pm EST on Thursday May 16, 2019 (for FY 2019 awards) or February 13, 2020 (for FY 2020 awards).