Healthy Soil Program - New Mexico

Grants to improve soil health are the centerpiece of the New Mexico Department of Agriculture (NMDA) Healthy Soil Program. Every year, NMDA awards grants to implement on-the-ground projects that involve one or more of the five soil health principles stated in the Healthy Soil Act: keeping soil covered; minimizing soil disturbance on cropland and minimizing external inputs; maximizing biodiversity; maintaining a living root; and integrating animals into land management (including grazing animals, birds, beneficial insects, or keystone species such as earthworms). NMDA created its Healthy Soil Program after the Healthy Soil Act was signed into law in 2019; the program's purpose is to promote and support farming, ranching, and other land management that increases soil organic matter, aggregate stability, microbiology, and water retention to improve the health, yield, and profitability of the soils of the state.

NMDA welcomes applications from two types of applicants. (1) Eligible Entities: pueblos, tribes, and nations; acequias; land grants; soil and water conservation districts (SWCDs); New Mexico State University-Cooperative Extension Service; and other local governmental entities with proven land management to support healthy soil. (2) Individual Applicants: a category that includes individuals, businesses, and nonprofits directly engaged in farming, ranching, and/or other forms of land management.

Grant caps depend on which applicant track you are in, and both are published in NMDA's FY27 Healthy Soil Program FAQs.

Eligible Entities (pueblos, tribes and nations; acequias; land grants; SWCDs; NMSU Cooperative Extension; other local governmental entities): "An Eligible Entity can apply up for up to $100,000.00 in project funds, provided the Eligible Entity has a Unique Entity ID (UEI) from the System for Award Management (https://sam.gov/). Eligible Entities that do not possess a UEI by the grant-application deadline ... can apply for a Healthy Soil Program grant of up to $24,999.99." Getting a UEI is free "but can be time-consuming," so the missing-UEI penalty is real: it drops the ceiling by roughly 75 percent.

Individual Applicants (individuals, businesses and nonprofits directly engaged in farming, ranching or land management): "An Individual Applicant can apply for up to $24,999.99. That figure must include the Project Sponsor's 15% administrative fee and mileage, both of which NMDA pays directly to the Project Sponsor." In other words the sponsor's 15 percent comes out of the same $24,999.99, not on top of it, so the funds actually available for on-the-ground work are materially less than the headline cap.

No match is required in either track. For Eligible Entities: "Matching and in-kind contributions are not required for Healthy Soil Program grants." For Individual Applicants: "NMDA does not require Individual Applicants to provide matching and/or in-kind contributions."

Project period rather than a multi-year contract: "NMDA will award funds to projects whose activities happen no earlier than July 15, 2026, and no later than September 30, 2027. NMDA will not fund activities occurring outside of that period."

A lifetime limit applies to individuals: "Individual Applicants who have received three (3) grants from NMDA's Healthy Soil Program are no longer eligible to apply for funding." There is no acreage minimum — "If less than an acre, a project site can be measured and submitted in terms of square feet" — but Individual Applicants must complete conservation planning with USDA-NRCS (or an NRCS-certified planner) and secure sponsorship from an SWCD or their tribal government before applying.

The next (Fiscal Year 2028) application cycle opens January 2027; NMDA encourages each potential applicant to begin working on their project idea in Fall 2026. Projects selected for funding will happen between July 2027 and September 2028. Applicants can review the FY2027 application requirements specific to Eligible Entities and to Individual Applicants, and can subscribe to the electronic newsletter to be notified of future funding opportunities.