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Find similar grantsCover Crop Program is sponsored by Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA). The Cover Crop Program provides farmers with grants to plant small grains in their fields in the fall to conserve nutrients, control soil erosion, and protect water quality.
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Accessibility Information Conservation Grants Maryland Agricultural Water Quality Cost-Share Program (MACS) Cover Crop Plus+ Program Manure Transport Program Ecosystem Incentives Program Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) Conservation Buffer Initiative Animal Waste Technology Fund Small Farm and Urban Agriculture Program The 2026-2027 Cover Crop Enrollment Period is Now Closed.
Approval Letters Will be Mailed Shortly. Mark Your Calendars... MDA's 2026-2027 Cover Crop Sign-Up runs June 22 through July 17, 2026 at local soil conservation district offices.
This is your opportunity to apply for grants to help pay for seed, labor, and equipment costs to plant soil-building cover crops in your fields Cover crops are important to the health of local waterways and the Chesapeake Bay.
They can also improve the quality of spring cash crops and lower input costs by: Recycling unused nutrients for spring cash crops Adding organic matter to the soil Controlling weeds and pests Reducing soil erosion and compaction Protecting fields from too much or too little rain Please contact your local soil conservation district to apply for our grants.
Be sure to bring your completed Nutrient Management Plan Certification and IRS Form W-9. This year’s base payment is $35/acre, but you can earn up to $65/acre in add-on incentives for using highly valued planting practices.
2026-2027 Cover Crop Planting and Payment Options Traditional Cover Crop Payment Options Broadcast with Light, Medium or Vertical Tillage Broadcast Stalk Chop and Broadcast Cultipacker Incorporate on or before October 10, add: triticale, or a multi-species cover crop, add: Planting Options and Requirements Plant cover crops after corn, soybeans, sorghum (sorghum/Sudan hybrid), tobacco, vegetables, hemp, sunflowers, sod, or millet.
You must plant at least 10 acres of cover crops to participate in this program. Enrolled acreage cannot exceed Nutrient Management Plan acreage. Direct deposit of cost-share grants is available.
Both homegrown and purchased seed must be tested and labeled following Maryland Seed Law and Regulations. Seed must be free of prohibited noxious weed seeds, have at least 80% germination, and contain no more than 16 restricted noxious weeds per pound. Cover crop fact sheets showing eligible seeding rates are available online and at your local soil conservation district.
Eligible Cover Crop Species Cereal Grains: Wheat/spelt, rye, barley, triticale, oats, and ryegrass Brassicas: Forage radish and canola/rape (must be planted with a cereal grain as part of a mix) Legumes: Clover, Austrian winter peas, and hairy vetch (must be planted with a cereal grain as part of a mix. Planting a cover crop mix can increase biodiversity on your farm and protect against extreme weath er.
Plant two-species cover crop mixes at a rate of 50% cereal grains and 50% brassicas or legumes. Three species mixes (50/25/25) must contain a minimum of 50% eligible cereal grains. To maximize their soil health benefits, we recommend that mixes containing legumes be terminated Plant cereal grains by November 5, 2026 .
Some species have earlier deadlines. Plant oats or mixes containing legumes, forage radish, canola/rape by The aerial seeding deadline is The deadline to receive an incentive for incorporated seeding methods is Terminate cover crops between March 1 and June 1, 2027 . After becoming well-established, eligible cover crops may be grazed or chopped for on-farm livestock forage.
Non-poultry manure may be applied to cover crop fields in the fall at a reduced payment rate of $25/acre. Certain conditions apply. This option does not qualify for additional incentives.
Certification Requirement To receive payment, you must certify your cover crop with your local soil conservation district within one week of planting and by November 12, 2026 . Additionally, all follow-up documentation must be submitted to the district by December 1, 2026. You must be in good standing with the Conservation Grants Program and in compliance with Maryland’s nutrient management requirements.
Additional restrictions may apply. Maryland's Cover Crop Program is funded by the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund and the Chesapeake and Atlantic Coastal Bays Trust Fund. Please contact your local soil conservation district for more information.
50 Harry S. Truman Parkway Annapolis, MD 21401 Watch our videos to learn how cover crops benefit your farm and local waterways.
2026-2027 Program Requirements and Agreement Soil Conservation District Mailing Addresses & Phone Numbers Current Nutrient Management Plan Certification Form IRS Form W-9 (leaving MDA) Regional Lab/Seed Testing Form Find a Contractor to Plant Your Cover Crop Cover Crop Fact Sheets (Seeding, Planting & Payment Rates) 2026-27 Calculator for Cover Crop Mixes (Microsoft Excel File) Check out our newly updated Cover Crop Plus+ grants for innovative cover crop practitioners.
NASA Earth Observatory Cover Crop Video ensures HTML content is downloaded and parsed first. This also means the site can begin to display prior to loading all JS, which helps display performance.
According to the current listing, eligibility includes: Farmers in Maryland are eligible. Confirm the full requirements in the official notice before applying.
Cover Crop Program is funded by Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA). Verify program details on the funder's official page before applying.
This opportunity targets applicants in Maryland. If your organization operates elsewhere, check the official notice for location requirements.
Start from the official opportunity page linked in this listing — it carries the sponsor's submission instructions.
SSbD bio-based alternatives for fertilising and/or crop protection products is sponsored by European Commission — Horizon Europe. Expected Outcome: Successful proposals will contribute to the updated EU Bioeconomy Strategy, Farm to Fork Strategy, the Horizon Europe Mission ‘A Soil Deal for Europe’, in particular the objectives: ‘Reduce soil pollution and enhance restoration’, the European Chemical Industry Action Plan as well as the Clean Industrial Deal. Projects results are expected to contribute to the following expected outcomes: Full industrial scale biorefinery and related value chain(s) for the sustainable production of bio-based fertilisers and/or crop protection solutions. Increased availability of cost-competitive and SSbD bio-based alternatives for fertilising and/or crop protection products with suitable agronomic efficacy. Reduced reliance on synthetic/mineral agricultural chemical products. Increased EU strategic autonomy, resilience and competitiveness through a robust cooperation among bio-based industries and farmers. Increased soil health, including minimising accumulation of microplastics and pollutants in soil and water, with positive effects on quality, security and resilience of food production in agriculture. Scope: FAO estimates that up to 40% of food crops are lost due to plant pests and diseases globally every year. [1] Chemical synthetic products are conventionally used to protect crops and other plants from pests and diseases. In parallel, the EU is largely dependent on imports of both mineral and chemical fertilisers to grow crops. In both cases, over-use of synthetic/mineral products also poses concern for soil health and food quality. Moreover, the unequal distribution and depletion of non-renewable sources risks disrupting supply chains, particularly during energy crises. SSbD bio-based fertilising and crop protection products can offer more resilient and sustainable solutions creating an added-value partnership between agriculture and industry both upstream (for feedstock supply) and downstream (for the use of sustainable and efficient bio-based products). However, when scaling-up, challenges need to be solved in terms of process efficiency and robustness against feedstock variability, formulations stability and efficacy on the field (also in consideration of climate change effects and different soil conditions), and cost competitiveness. Proposals under this topic should: Demonstrate (at TRL 8) the efficient industrial production of SSbD bio-based solutions as alternatives to current fertilising and/or crop protection products. Bioactive molecules and/or biotechnology solutions for bio-fertilisers, bio-stimulants and/or pest/disease control (e.g., bioherbicides, biopesticides, bioinsecticides), or a combination thereof, are in scope. Products in scope can be applicable at any crop(s) cycle stage. Validate (at TRL 6 and above) at scale the produced bio-alternatives into the formulation of end-product(s) and test their agronomic efficiency, safety and sustainability to prove the achievement of similar or improved properties compared to defined benchmarks available in the market (synthetic and/or mineral). In case of bio-based fertilisers, put in place a solid production validation procedure to ensure reduced nutrient variability of the N/P/K content in end-products. Test the developed product(s) with primary producers on the field (demo farms) for selected crops and monitor their effects on soil health and quality, as well as on water. Cover different climatic and soil conditions, taking into account different farming systems, including organic agriculture. If controlled release mechanisms are employed, the proposed innovations should avoid microplastics accumulation in soil. In addition to the specific requirements applicable for the type of action, as described in section 2.2.3.1 of the CBE JU Annual Work Programme 2026 [2] , proposals under this topic should: As part of the multi-actor approach (MAA), ensure adequate involvement of all key actors in the value chains relevant for this topic and across the sustainable cir Programme areas: Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness, Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment, Bio-based Innovation Systems in the EU Bioeconomy, Horizon Europe (HORIZON) Keywords: Agricultural biotechnology, Agriculture related to crop production, soil biology and cultivation, applied plant biology, Agronomy, Fertilisation, agricultural biotechnology, bio-based crop protection solutions, bio-based fertilisers, bioactive molecules, biorefineries, farming systems, safe and sustainable by design, STEP-Biotech
Round 2 of the Farming Futures Automation and Robotics competition is the UK's largest dedicated agri-robotics funding call, offering up to 20,000,000 pounds for collaborative R&D on robotic and intelligent automated systems for farming, horticulture and forestry in England. It sits within Defra's Farming Innovation Programme and is delivered by Innovate UK. The scope is broader than previous rounds: alongside core arable and horticultural crops it now covers farmed animals, fruit, orchards, vineyards, protected cropping, ornamental plant propagation and monitoring, and forestry operations. Eligible technologies span robotic and intelligent automated machines, imaging and sensing systems for data collection, post-harvest automation carried out on farm, intelligent food storage systems, and on-farm energy management - a list that puts perception, machine learning and autonomous decision-making at the centre of what the fund will support, even though the competition title leads with robotics rather than AI. The named target problems are productivity, reliance on labour, resource use efficiency, food quality and traceability, waste, crop and animal health, animal welfare and sustainability. Two points determine whether a strong technical idea is fundable here. First, this is explicitly a collaborative competition: a minimum of two organisations must apply for funding, the lead must be a UK-registered business of any size, and no single organisation may take more than 70 per cent of eligible costs. Second, the exclusions are specific and catch applicants out - equine, wild fisheries, aquaculture, medicinal crops, food processing and forestry harvesting equipment are all out of scope. The competition opened 3 August 2026 and closes 30 September 2026 at 11:00am UK time, with projects running 12 to 36 months, starting by 1 March 2027 and ending by 28 February 2030.
The RUS Powering Affordable Reliable Technology (PART) Energy Program takes Letters of Interest until October 9, 2026. Up to 40% of each loan can be forgiven, awards run $1M to $100M, and USDA describes eligible generation as hydro, geothermal, and biomass — even though Section 317 of the RE Act names solar and wind.
Read articleUSDA announced 194 Value-Added Producer Grant awards totaling $26.5 million on September 18, 2026 — beef took $11.6 million of it. The FY26 caps were cut to $50,000 and $200,000, a new rule disqualifies applications with grant-writer fees above 15 percent, and the average award landed above the dollar threshold that earns priority points. Here is how the scoring actually works.
Read articleUSDA-FS-2026-CFP puts $4.95 million behind fee-simple forest acquisition, caps requests at $600,000, and requires a 50 percent non-federal match. But the deadline that will actually disqualify you is October 13 — the date your application must be in your State Forester's hands, two weeks before the Forest Service ever sees it.
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