Organic Transition Initiative Direct Farmer Assistance (OTI)

Before crops can be certified organic, farmers must carefully manage their land without using prohibited inputs like synthetic pesticides for 36 months. During this transition period and during the first years after certification, farmers often face many technical and market challenges. The Organic Transition Initiative (OTI) is a $300 million multi-agency USDA effort to support this transition and build and strengthen organic markets. USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service both have a major role in the Organic Transition Initiative.

Farmers, ranchers, forest landowners, and other producers beginning or in the process of transitioning to organic certification.

No payment rate, cost-share percentage, or per-producer cap is published for the direct farmer assistance component. What is published:

• The headline figure is the whole multi-agency umbrella, not a per-farmer amount: "The Organic Transition Initiative (OTI) is a $300 million multi-agency USDA effort to support this transition and build and strengthen organic markets" — spanning TOPP mentoring, NRCS assistance, and AMS market grants.

• Assistance reaches farmers as an NRCS conservation contract: "It supports conservation activities and practices required for organic certification and may provide foregone income reimbursement for dips in production during the transition period."

• "Higher payment rates and other options are available for underserved producers including socially disadvantaged, beginning, veteran, and limited resource farmers and ranchers."

• No match is mentioned, and there is no fixed application window — apply through NRCS at your local USDA Service Center.

Your actual dollar amounts come from your state's NRCS EQIP payment schedule for the practices in your organic management plan, so the Service Center visit is where the numbers get real.

Contact your local NRCS office to apply: http://www.farmers.gov/service-locator