MOSCOW, Idaho — The largest grant in University of Idaho’s history was canceled this week due to changes put in place by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
According to the university, this nearly $59 million grant through the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities (PCSC) would have gone to Idaho farmers to help develop sustainable agriculture practices.
University faculty, staff and graduate students were working closely with those farmers to collect and analyze data generated by these practices through the program. That data would have helped farmers make informed decisions about how these practices would help their bottom line.
This week, the USDA changed the criteria for Climate-Smart grants. The new criteria require at least 65% of grant funds must go directly to farmers.
In the University of Idaho’s original proposal, over 50% of the funding was set aside for direct incentive payments to producers while the rest intended to provide technical and marketing services to those producers.
USDA is relaunching the PCSC program as the Advancing Markets for Producers Initiative. The university will have the opportunity to resubmit a grant proposal that meets the new criteria by June 20.
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