Progress report for WCA24-001
Project Information
In order to streamline the execution of the PDP program in California, are continuing to use the state PDP award to fund mini-grants. We have an established advisory committee to prioritize funding criteria and review submitted proposals for this proposal’s funding cycle. We also have assistance available through the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources division and through a 3% FTE staff person to help manage the mini-grant application and funding processes. We planned to fund mini-grants ranging from $5,000-$35,000 each that would be awarded through a formal call for proposal(s).
The incredible diversity of California’s agriculture creates an equally diverse need for educational and professional development. High-priority topics were identified by the advisory committee include:
- Climate change
- Fire: wild and prescribed
- Nutrient management practices to minimize environmental (and especially groundwater) impairments
- Water use efficiency
- Integrated Pest Management, especially in the context of climate change
- Alternative marketing approaches for the economic benefit of small-scale and underserved producers
- Succession planning
- Community-based food systems
- Agricultural community disaster preparedness
- On-farm alternative energy generation and use
- Organic farming
- Economic resilience of agriculture and natural resource businesses
These identified topics helped the steering committee prioritize projects during the review of PDP mini-grant proposals.
Through the mini-grant process, we selected projects that had clear project activities that lead to desired WSARE objectives toward increasing knowledge and skills of our agriculture and natural resource educators across the state. When reviewing applications and assessing activities and objectives, sometimes it is unknown what the true outcome will be, and whether that outcome perfectly reflects original objectives. In past PDP mini-grant reports, we have yet to be disappointed in the outcomes of these projects, and often, although, not well documented as "match", these limited WSARE funds go a long way toward educating educators. The purpose of this statewide PDP grant was to fund mini-grants that the advisory committee saw as having the greatest impact of increasing competency of agriculture educators and professionals in California.
The overall objective of this plan is to increase the capacity of Cooperative Extension advisors, NRCS field staff, and other agricultural professionals to apply the principals of sustainable agriculture while working with their clientele (Farmers, ranchers, consumers, youth, businesses, government, and communities). We received 17 grant applications for these limited professional development program funds. Of the 17 applicants, only 4 were awarded, ranging from $18,450 to $24,998. We estimate that 100 – 300 agricultural professionals will increase their awareness of threats to agricultural sustainability in California and develop skills to help address these threats. A majority of these professionals will also increase their knowledge about utilizing specific approaches in assisting producers with specific sustainability issues.
Projects and institutions that were selected to receive funding by the steering committee were as follows:
- Santa Clara University: Co-producing a place-based food justice conference and curriculum in the South Bay: $24,998
- San Diego State University Research Foundation: Scaling up agroforestry adoption through training of California's agriculture and natural resource professionals: $24,508
- Coastal San Luis Resource Conservation District: Increasing cover crop adoption through targeted training: $23,717
- University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources: Building capacity to support farmers and ranchers impacted by disaster: $18,450
These projects will work to educate agricultural professionals on relevant topics including wildfire resilience and recovery, soil health, increased food production, and improved food sovereignty. The pool of applications was very strong this year, and we are hopeful that these four projects have long-lasting impacts throughout the state.
Request for Proposals Notes: It was identified during the fall 2024 review process, that in the future, we should add a way to prioritize early career ag professionals. The committee also noted that there needed to be a place for the applicants to justify why they are qualified to conduct the work outlined in the proposal and that there needed to be more emphasis on explaining the budget in the budget justification.
Continuous change is one of the defining threats to the sustainability of California’s agricultural production systems and rural communities. The 2021 California Climate Adaptation Strategy calls for accelerated use of nature-based solutions, planning and building capacity to implement climate smart agricultural practices, conserve water, and protect groundwater. The California Air Resources Board 2022 Scoping Plan also calls for increased climate smart agricultural practices on cropland, and specifically plans for an increase in organic agriculture to 20% of all cultivated acres by 2045. The state’s 2021 Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan lays out the need to increase the use of prescribed burns and “restore the health and resilience of California forests, grasslands and natural places” (p.7), all places where significant segments of California’s livestock production sector are located.
In addition to climate change, WSARE’s 2022 Needs Assessment of Sustainable Agricultural Practices in the Western US also identifies water issues, protection of agricultural land for agricultural uses, food security, support for farmers and ranchers from underserved groups, marketing of sustainable agriculture production, food safety and alternative energy as top issues that need to be addressed in the West.
California, as a microcosm of the whole western region, is a highly diverse state with over 300 different crops and livestock commodities produced, across a large range of micro-climates. Accordingly, the topics covered by the California Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) Professional Development Program (PDP) need to be equally broad in addressing the large range of issues and priority strategies identified for our state and the wider region.
Specifically, our statewide mini-grant request for proposals called for PDP projects addressing education needs in the following topical areas:
- Climate change and agricultural adaptation
- Fire: wild and prescribed
- Soil health
- Increased on-farm biodiversity and wildlife/pollinator habitat
- Nutrient management for environmental health
- Water use efficiency
- Integrated Pest Management
- Market diversification/Alternative marketing
- Succession planning
- Community-based food systems/Urban agriculture
- Mental health for ag professionals and the farming community
- Agricultural and food systems resilience to biophysical and socioeconomics shocks
Timeline of project activities:
- Assess interest in advisory panel members in continuing their term: May 2024
- Acquire nominations and fill advisory committee vacancies: June 2024
- Engagement of advisory committee: July 2024 (State coordinators solicited the advisory panel to finalize priority topic areas to be included in the mini-grant request for proposals.)
- Prepare request for proposals for mini-grants: July 2024
- Prepare announcement and application form for mini-grant RFPs and disseminate widely with application instructions: August 2024
- Solicit applications: August-September 2024
- Coordinated advisory committee member review: October 2024
- Proposal selection: November 2024
- Budget review and notification of grant applicants of awardees: December 2024
- Disbursement of budgets to awarded institutions by UCANR contracts and grants: January 2025
- Executive Stop Order from Trump: January - February 2025
- Annual check-in and annual reports from grantees: November 2025
- Mini-grants must end by June 30, 2026
- Check-in and final reports from grantees: July 2026
- Overall budget assessment and reallocation of any remaining funds back to the statewide PDP program: August 2026
- Collect and compile project completion and evaluation reports from grantees: October 2026
- Complete final reports and submit to WSARE: December 2026
Advisors
- (Educator)
- (Educator)
Education
Mini-grant awardees plan to provide the following (but not limited to) educational opportunities to agriculture professionals: conferences, peer-to-peer education, workshops, demonstrations, and field days.
Education & Outreach Initiatives
Assessment of federal spending
The University of California underwent a full financial process makeover during the year of 2024. As such, all of the BOC and financial processes were painfully slow that year. This grant was caught in the transition and as such, work was not happening on-time. These funds were not successfully allocated to the sub-contracting entities to perform the work until January 2025, and we received the stop work order shortly thereafter.