Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership

Notice: _On April 14, 2025, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced the cancellation of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities (PCSC). The USDA plans to reform the program into the Advancing Markets for Producers (AMP) initiative. Contact your local USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) for more information on how to apply to the AMP initiative. _

This Proximity Climate-Smart Partnership plans to financially assist farms, and other partners, in developing and implementing regenerative barley practices and building a climate-smart barley market. Participating producers, who meet the science-backed certification requirements, would receive an additional percent premium over conventional barley contract pricing plus an annual transition incentive during the project.

Funds may be used farmers to obtain equipment necessary for transitioning to regenerative barley. A percentage of funds, partially used for subsidizing verification services, would be set aside specifically for small and underserved farmers who would receive priority.

Individual barley growers enroll directly with Proximity Malt — there is no public competitive application round, and Proximity's enrollment form is the only published gate.

Where you must farm. The program page names two eligible regions and no others:

• Mid Atlantic: "Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia"

• Mountain West: "Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Wyoming"

Two hard requirements, both stated on the enrollment form as things you must acknowledge:

• "I understand I will need to establish Farm Records with the Farm Service Agency (FSA) (have farm, tract, and field numbers in place)"

• "I understand I will receive a W-9 for payments received from this grant"

Preferred but not required. The form's remaining checkboxes are qualifications, not tests: "I currently have small grains in my rotation," "I have grown malting barley," and "I currently practice no-till or minimum till, or am interested in making this transition." You can indicate you are new to malting barley.

What is NOT published: no acreage minimum, no entity-type restriction (so sole proprietors, LLCs and other farm entities are all presumably fine), no organic or other certification requirement, no income test, and no application deadline. Note also that no priority or set-aside for small and underserved farmers appears anywhere on the live page — treat any such claim as unverified.

One caution before you plan around this: the parent federal program is gone. "On April 14, 2025, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced the cancellation of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities (PCSC)." Proximity's page still presents an open enrollment form and does not state whether the program is open, closed, or ended, so confirm with Proximity directly and ask your local FSA office about the successor Advancing Markets for Producers (AMP) initiative.

No premium percentage, per-acre payment, transition-incentive amount, or contract length is published. Proximity's program page commits only to "Providing a payment premium for regeneratively grown barley to offset the risks and attract new growers," and its regenerative-grains page publishes no figures either. Expect the actual numbers to be set in an individual barley contract, so treat the premium as negotiable rather than posted.

Context, not a farmer payment: USDA's approved federal funding for this project was $4,999,233 (ceiling $4,999,524) — the whole five-year partnership budget across all participants, verification services, and administration, not an award to any one farm.

Before you plan around any of it, note the parent program is gone: "On April 14, 2025, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins announced the cancellation of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities (PCSC)." Confirm directly with Proximity that enrollment and the premium are still live, and ask your local FSA office about the successor Advancing Markets for Producers (AMP) initiative.

Fill out the application here.