The Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service Tuesday announced $12.5 million in Conservation Innovation Grants.
The effort supports development of innovative systems and technologies for private lands conservation.
The funding is provided through the Conservation Innovation Grants program, which “funds the future of agriculture and conservation” through grants to organizations and universities that are developing the next generation of tools and technologies to boost conservation on agricultural lands.
NRCS Chief Matthew Lohr says the projects will “result in new science-based tools for our toolbox.”
The 2019 funding pool focused on four priority areas: water quantity, urban agriculture, pollinator habitat and accelerating the pace and scale of conservation adoption.
NRCS selected 19 projects for the grant awards.
One of the projects, at the University of Minnesota, will evaluate cover crop rotations for vegetable systems, and their impact on pollinators.
A complete list of funded projects is available online, at nrcs.usda.gov.
