Urban Agriculture and Urban County Committee Outreach, Technical Assistance, and Education

Assistance from USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) to selected eligible applicants to conduct targeted outreach and technical assistance on FSA programs in urban areas, with an emphasis on communities of disadvantaged, historically-underserved, beginning, and veteran socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers in urban areas. Socially disadvantaged groups are defined as a group whose members have been subjected to racial, ethnic, or gender prejudice because of their identity as members of a group without regard to their individual qualities. Outreach and technical assistance are focused on educating agricultural producers in one or more of FSA’s Urban County Committee (COC) Pilot locations and other urban areas. These agreements will support urban agriculture outreach, research, training, technical assistance, and education projects through non-competitive cooperative agreements with local organizations. Micro-grants may be authorized to urban agricultural producers as beneficiaries as needed for projects that support the goals of this opportunity and for areas where USDA funding already isn’t available. FSA must approve the project plan before the micro-grant portion of any proposal could be implemented. With the complex nature of some of FSA’s programs, FSA will focus additional outreach and education to producers in areas who could benefit from additional outreach in order to (1) increase knowledge, awareness, and participation in FSA and USDA programs and services associated with growing food in an urban area; (2) assist farmers with expanding their farming operations, accessing land, and implementing climate-friendly practices that can mitigate their susceptibility to natural disasters in urban areas; and (3) increase representation of underserved farmers serving on Urban County Committees.