Agricultural News
More than $18 Million Awarded in Conservation Innovation Grants
Fri, 13 Aug 2010 4:25:01 CDT
The winning proposals for the 2010 Conservation Innovation Grants have been announced. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack made the announcement Thursday - saying the grants will produce far-reaching results on a wide range of issues - including conservation management and bio-energy production - by facilitating the development and adoption of new approaches and technologies. The Natural Resources Conservation Service received 230 proposals and is awarding nearly 18-million dollars in Conservation Innovation Grants for 61 projects in 43 states and U.S. territories in the Pacific.
Two of the multi- state grants include work in Oklahoma. One was awarded to the Environmental Defense Fund to work on the "Development of Protocols and Accounting Methods for Carbon Sequestration on US Rangelands." The other multi state award involving Oklahoma went to the Dairy Research Institute to establish a "Farm energy audit data collector training program."
There was one single state grant coming to Oklahoma- being provided to the Oklahoma Conservation Commission to "Developing high quality carbon offset verification protocols and quantifying water quality improvements of best management practices to ensure the environmental benefits of agricultural carbon offsets." Just over $303,000 was awarded for this project to the state agency.
These grants invest in innovative, on-the-ground conservation technologies and approaches with the goal of addressing water quality and quantity, air quality, energy conservation and environmental markets on a wide-scale. Vilsack says creative solutions that help producers conserve natural resources and reduce costs are an important part of the USDA's efforts to improve the quality of air, water and soil.
Grant recipients provide matching funds to the grants to make the overall value of the awards more than 35-million dollars. Awarded projects address emerging natural resource issues - including ag air emissions, energy conservation and market-based approaches to conservation.
To see a list of all awarded projects go to the NRCS page by clicking here.
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