The Climate-Smart Agriculture Innovative Finance Initiative

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 project, covering more than 30 states, will use innovative finance mechanisms to accelerate climate-smart practice uptake by farmers, including Tribal and Black farmers, leveraging private sector demand to strengthen markets for climate-smart commodities. Partners will provide technical assistance and additional financial incentives to a diverse array of producers across a range of commodities, tying climate-smart practices to commodity purchases and creating a scalable model for private sector investment.

The project plans to focus on cover crops, low- or no-till, nutrient management, and/or enhanced efficiency fertilizers to increase supply of climate-smart corn, cotton, soy, and wheat.

In each project, partners will work together to recruit producers, provide financial and technical assistance to participating producers, support producers in completing MMRV activities using well-established, user-friendly tools and procedures, and link producers to downstream markets in the form of brands and retailers who seek climate-smart commodities to meet sustainable sourcing commitments and science-based targets for emissions reductions.

There is no single eligibility test. The Initiative is a portfolio of separate projects, each run by its own partner with its own state list and its own eligible practices — you qualify by fitting one of them, not by applying to Field to Market. Producers are the intended participants throughout: across projects, partners "Recruit producers and support enrollment" and "Provide financial incentives and technical assistance to participating producers." The Initiative's own apply form asks for your state and county.

The projects and who can enroll in each:

• Land Assistance Fund — the page publishes no membership requirement. All it says is where the Federation aims its outreach: "The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund (Federation) targets outreach for operating loans to its members." Targeted outreach is not an eligibility test, and no source read here states that Federation membership is required — so do not rule yourself out if you are not a member; ask the Federation directly. States included: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas. Practices include alley cropping, reduced-till, no-till, strip-till, cover crops, conservation crop rotations, critical area planting, prescribed grazing, range planting, strip-cropping, buffer strips.

• Regenerative Finance Model (Akiptan, with the Intertribal Agriculture Council) — a loan, not a grant. "Akiptan offers sustainable loans designed to help producers to strengthen their balance sheet and cash flow while implementing regenerative agriculture practices." Available across a long multi-state list; the same practice set as above.

• Regenerative Agriculture Fund I (Farmers Business Network) — a credit product. "RAF I is an annual farm operating line of credit offered by Farmers Business Network. Eligible farmers earn a practice-based incentive equivalent to a 0.5% discount from their base rate... by meeting environmental standards tied to nutrient management and soil conservation." "Farmers will be eligible to enroll in RAF, the cost-share marketing incentive, or both." Practices: reduced-till, no-till, strip-till, cover crops, nutrient management.

• Practice Linked Incentive (Illinois Corn's Precision Conservation Management) — states included: Illinois, Kentucky, Nebraska. Practices: cover crops, no-till, reduced till, nutrient management, various enhancements.

• Practice Linked Crop Plans I (Practical Farmers of Iowa) — states included: Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota. Practices: cover crops, nutrient management.

• Practice Linked Crop Plans II (Growers Edge with Coop Elevator, incentive paid by Mondelez) — Michigan only. Practices: nutrient management, reduced till, no-till, cover crops.

• Practice Linked Crop Plans III (Growers Edge with Nutrien Ag Solutions) — a broad multi-state list including Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio and South Dakota, for nitrogen-reduction practices.

What is not published: no acreage minimum, no income floor or ceiling, no years-of-experience or tenure requirement, and no beginning/veteran/socially-disadvantaged restriction or stated priority. Bear in mind that three of these routes are loans, lines of credit, or warranty products, so the partner lender's own credit underwriting will apply on top of anything published here.

Now running under USDA's Advancing Markets for Producers (AMP). There is no single payment — money reaches you as a project-specific incentive through whichever partner program you enroll in, so your terms depend on that choice.

Initiative scale (context, not your award): "This Initiative leverages $70M in federal grant funds, combined with $66M in matching funds and an additional $40M in leveraged industry support, to support over 10M acres of farmland and 9,000 producers. Over the span of the project, the Initiative will deliver $81M to producers."

Published per-project terms:

• Illinois Corn Precision Conservation Management — $5-$25 per acre. "Matching funds from PepsiCo, offering $5-$25 per acre, will be used to incentivize farmers to adopt conservation practices" (cover crops, reduced-till, no-till, strip-till, nitrogen reduction, and practice enhancements).

• Regenerative Agriculture Fund I — a 0.5% interest discount, not a payment. "The Regenerative Agriculture Fund I (RAF I) is an annual farm operating line of credit offered by Farmers Business Network. Eligible farmers earn a practice-based incentive equivalent to a 0.5% discount from their base rate on the interest paid on the line of credit, through the full and timely payment of the line of credit, and by meeting environmental standards tied to nutrient management and soil conservation."

• Practical Farmers of Iowa N Rate Risk Protection Program — rate not published. "Through the N Rate Risk Protection Program (NRRPP), growers agree to reduce their nitrogen rates. If the benchmark yield is not achieved with reduced nitrogen application, a per-acre reimbursement payment may be claimed to cover a portion of the performance reduction."

• Growers Edge Crop Plan yield warranty — rate not published. "If yields fall below the established performance expectations, the grower can claim a warranty payment... to cover a portion of performance shortfall."

No per-producer award floor or ceiling is published, and no cost-share percentage applies across the initiative as a whole.

Interested learning more about The Innovative Finance Initiative, or how to get involved? Please direct questions to Alyssa Hernandez, Field to Market Program Assistant, via this form.