Agriculture

Consistent with 7 U.S.C. 5925f, NIFA is soliciting applications for the Farm Business
Management and Benchmarking (FBMB) program to improve the farm management knowledge and skills of agricultural producers by maintaining and expanding a national, publicly available farm financial management database to support improved farm management.

The FBMB program aims to strongly support innovative extension approaches and collaborative efforts to maintain and expand the publicly available national farm financial management database (FINBIN). Such efforts are needed to meet the challenges facing the nation’s agriculture and food systems. Farm management producers must be educated and prepared to work effectively across disciplines to solve agricultural and educational challenges. Meeting these challenges will require projects that are timely, strategic, creative, and multi-disciplinary.

The FBMB program supports all producers to develop farm management knowledge and skills that are consistent with the agriculture and food systems priorities of the USDA.
Extension projects supported by the FBMB program, to the extent possible, shall be coordinated and delivered in cooperation with similar services or assistance by other federal agencies or programs supporting improved farm management.
The Secretary may give priority to grants that demonstrate an ability to work directly with
agricultural producers; collaborate with farm management associations and financial
management education programs; address the farm management needs of a variety of crops and regions of the United States; and contribute data to support the national farm financial management database (FINBIN).

The FBMB program supports novel projects that encompass the management of money at the personal, firm, and public levels to support livelihoods and quality of life for agricultural
producers and farm communities. The FBMB program also supports projects that incorporate social and behavioral science disciplines, leadership skills development, and decision-making which are important elements to address the many challenges facing agriculture and farm communities. These challenges may include but are not limited to increasing global demand for food production in the face of limited natural resources; improving health opportunities and outcomes; reducing food loss and waste; and alleviating poverty by creating economic opportunity and supporting workforce development.

These grants support general operating cost or specific projects and applicants must be registered as (or fiscally sponsored by) a 501(c)3 organization. The Foundation reviews applications twice a year; the deadlines are March 1 and August 1. Grant announcements occur approximately four months after the deadline. Typical grants range from $5,000 - $50,000 and last for one year.

Priorities
Regenerative and Organic Farming: Accelerate the adoption of regenerative farming practices, including organic, climate-resilient, equitable, and agroecological approaches.
Food Production Workers’ Health and Safety: Amplify efforts to secure healthy, safe, just, and empowering working and living conditions for food production workers.
Climate Justice: Expand community-centered solutions to climate change that build resilience and empower those who have been historically marginalized.
Healthy Food Access: Advance food systems’ changes that make healthy and sustainably produced food accessible, affordable, and culturally appropriate.
Inclusive Outdoor Access: Catalyze solutions that expand access to safe places to enable healthy physical activity and improve mental health.
Indoors and Outdoors Safe from Pollution: Promote preventative health approaches by identifying and eliminating toxics from our air, water, soil, and human-made materials.

Guidelines
Priority is given to applicants that:
Advance our strategic priorities and align with our values
Focus their work primarily in the United States and its organized incorporated territories
Demonstrate strong community ties
Have operating budgets under $3MM
Operate at the grassroots level to implement change at the local, state or national stage

Areas not funded
Capital construction
(construction, demolition, renovation, or renewal of a public building)
Deficit funding
Endowments
Faith-based or religious organizations
Fundraising events (e.g., fun run, challenges, annual gala)
Individuals
Local and state public sector or government agencies
Media projects (such as films, books, radio)
Medical Centers
Product donations
Sponsorships

The American-Made Large Animal and Solar System Operations (LASSO) Prize offers more than $8 million in cash prizes to multi-stakeholder teams that develop impactful projects to deepen our understanding of the co-location of solar photovoltaics (PV) and cattle grazing operations (cattle agrivoltaics).

The LASSO Prize is designed to bring solar developers, farmers, ranchers, and other stakeholders together to form teams; build pilot sites; identify best practices, use cases, costs, applicable business models, and associated energy and agricultural outcomes; host field days; and more!

Prize Overview
Agrivoltaics, the co-location of solar PV and agriculture, is a growing industry that shows promising benefits for both agricultural production and solar energy development.

Cattle agrivoltaics has the potential to reduce land use conflict, preserve agricultural land, increase landowner and farmer/rancher revenues, and may also benefit animal welfare and plant and soil health while easing some of the barriers to solar energy deployment.

This innovative practice is relatively new in the United States, and more pilot and pilot site projects are needed to de-risk designs and business models to prove that cattle agrivoltaics can yield agricultural and economic opportunities.

The LASSO Prize, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office, will support pilot and pilot sites projects designed to gather and share information about costs, business models, and energy and agricultural outcomes associated with cattle agrivoltaics. The prize also aims to support relationship-building between the solar energy and agricultural communities and generate best practices that will help expand the industry.

Interested competitors are encouraged to create multi-stakeholder teams and compete in one of two available tracks: Standard Track and Operating Projects Track. Phase 1 submissions for both tracks are due March 6, 2025, at 5 p.m. ET.

Standard Track
The Standard Track is open to new cattle agrivoltaics projects. Through the three phases (Phase 2 consists of two subphases), this track focuses on teaming, system and grazing plan design, construction, implementation, and multi-year data collection.

Standard Track
The Standard Track is open to new cattle agrivoltaics projects. Through the three phases (Phase 2 consists of two subphases), this track focuses on teaming, system and grazing plan design, construction, implementation, and multi-year data collection.

Bonus Prizes
The LASSO Prize offers two bonus prizes: the Largest PV System Bonus Prize and the Data Bounty Bonus Prize.

The Largest PV System Bonus Prize is awarded to the team with the largest operational cattle agrivoltaics system in which cattle interact with a DC-rated PV capacity over 5 MW-dc, considering only teams from the Standard Track with eligible Standard Track Phase 2B submissions.

The Data Bounty Bonus Prize is awarded to the team that submits the most valuable datasets from cattle agrivoltaics projects that go above and beyond minimum requirements. Submissions from both Standard Track Phase 3 and Operating Projects Track Phase 2 are eligible for this bonus prize.

Who Is Eligible to Compete
The prize is open to U.S.-based individuals and organizations, including solar developers, ranchers, and farmers. Teams are encouraged to include members who are hardware and software manufacturers, local governments, utilities, commodity organizations, historically underserved producers, researchers, extension programs, and universities with expertise in cattle research and agrivoltaics. See the Official Rules for eligibility criteria.

NOTE: For this prize, cattle agrivoltaics entails the co-location of solar PV arrays and cattle grazing. It does not include rooftop PV systems, projects without interaction between the cattle and the PV array, or projects with any livestock other than cattle.