North Dakota is one of four states chosen for a federally funded pilot program to spur more interest in farmers to reduce their carbon footprint.
Through a USDA grant, the Alliance to Advance Climate-Smart Agriculture will offer farmers and ranchers in the selected states $100 an acre or animal unit to implement conservation practices, such as cover crops and no-till farming. The federal government has longstanding cost-sharing programs for these efforts, but it's not easy for all producers to get approved.
Matt Perdue, government relations director with the North Dakota Farmers Union, said this new approach aims to connect with a diverse pool of applicants.
"It is a more streamlined process, it's a simpler program," he explained. "Producers will be selected through a random algorithm instead of a complex scoring process. And so, there are ways there that we're going to improve access for producers to this program."
Officials say 40% of the project's nationwide enrollment must come from under-served, socially disadvantaged or limited-resource farms. A 2021 report from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy noted there were nearly 900 applications for the federal Conservation Stewardship Program in North Dakota, but only 14% of applicants were awarded funds.
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