Healthy Soils Program
*NEW* TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PROVIDERS FOR HSP INCENTIVES PROGRAM - APPLICATIONS DUE JULY 20, 2017
Non-profit organizations, CA Resource Conservation Districts and CA academic institutions are invited to apply for funding to provide technical assistance to potential applicants with their Healthy Soils Program (HSP) - Incentives applications. Please refer to the HSP Incentives Program Technical Assistance Workshops Grant Request for Applications below for details. Applications should be submitted to cdfa.oefi@cdfa.ca.gov no later than 5:00 p.m. PST on July 20, 2017.
Technical assistance will be made available through a $25,000 partnership grant between CDFA and the Strategic Growth Council to achieve the mutual objective of providing technical assistance to HSP Incentives Program applicants.
CDFA appropriated $7.5 million in FY 2016-17 to develop and administer a new incentive and demonstration program on the CA Healthy Soils Initiative from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The objective of this new Healthy Soils Program is to build soil carbon and reduce agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Public and stakeholder input for the development of program framework will take place through public meetings of the Environmental Farming Act — Science Advisory Panel.
The most recent meeting of the Environmental Farming Act Science Advisory Panel took place on May 18th, 2017 in Sacramento, CA.
CDFA accepted public comments on the draft Request for Grant Applications for HSP-Incentives Program and HSP-Demonstration Projects between June 28, 2017 and July 12, 2017. Comment letters are available here.
Information from previous meetings:
- Program framework presented for public comment at the third public meeting on May 18, 2017 in Sacramento.
- Program framework presented for public comment at the second public meeting on March 16, 2017 in Sacramento.
- Program framework presented for public comment at the first public meeting on January 19, 2017 in Sacramento.
- Public comments received from January 19 – April 21, 2017.
- Information on the Healthy Soils Program presented previously to the Science Panel is available here.
To receive e-mail news updates on the Healthy Soils Program: subscribe here.
Tentative Timeline for the 2016-2017 Healthy Soils Program
| Item | Proposed Dates* |
|---|---|
| Public/stakeholder meetings and program development (including GHG Quantification Methodology) | November 2016 – May 2017 |
| Request for Grant Applications released for public comments and public comment period | July 2017 |
| Request for Grant Applications released | July 2017 |
| Grant Application Workshops | July – August 2017 |
| Applications/Grant Proposals due | August 2017 |
| Proposal evaluation periods | August – November 2017 |
| Grant awardees announced | November 2017 |
| Project implementation begins | December 2017 |
| *Subject to change | |
