Northeast SARE: Farmer Grant Program

The Northeast SARE: Farmer Grant Program supports innovative sustainable agriculture projects by providing funding to farmers. Grants ranging from $5,000 to $30,000 enable farmers to conduct research, implement new ideas, and address issues affecting long-term sustainability. This program encourages proposals that explore diverse topics such as crop production, livestock raising, urban agriculture, and climate-smart practices. Successful projects promise significant benefits to farming communities while fostering collaboration and education within the agricultural sector.

Background
Northeast SARE offers grants to farmers to explore new concepts in sustainable agriculture conducted through experiments, surveys, prototypes, on-farm demonstrations or other research and education techniques. Farmer Grant projects address issues that affect farming with long-term sustainability in mind.
Competitive proposals explore new ideas and techniques or apply known ideas in new ways or with new communities. Reviewers look to fund projects that are well-designed to meet proposed objectives and promise the greatest benefit to farming communities.
A wide variety of topics can be funded by Northeast SARE, including marketing and business, crop production, raising livestock, aquaculture, social sustainability, climate-smart agriculture practices, urban and Indigenous agriculture and much more.
What funds can be used for
Funds can be used to conduct the research project including paying farmers for their time, for project-related materials, for project costs like consulting fees or soil tests, and any communications or outreach expenses associated with telling others about project results.
Funding available and timeline
Awards typically range from $5,000 to $30,000, depending upon a project’s complexity and duration. Projects that are more complex include multi-farm collaboration, intensive education for other farmers and/or service providers, and/or replicated research over multiple years or locations. Simpler, straightforward proposals with modest budgets are equally encouraged.
Applicants should only request the amount of funding that is clearly necessary for the success of their project.