Coming soon, the application deadline for grant programs under the umbrella of the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service Local Agriculture Market Program.
“For the Farmers Market Promotion Program, Local Food Promotion Program and Regional Food Systems Partnership Program, the due date for those applications to AMS is June 5 of this year, and they are all on the same timeline, and then we, of course, conduct our review and make selections and awards in the months after that.”
AMS Deputy Administrator Tricia Kovacs says each program, while focused on local markets, varies regarding specific targets.
“For all of those programs, the Farmers Market Promotion Program for direct-to-consumer markets, the Local Food Promotion Program for intermediated markets that have partners in between the farmer and the buyer, and the Regional Food Systems Partnership Program that focuses on the regional economic vitality and local markets for producers.”
So, think of aspects of local ag markets, such as planning support and expansion of farmers markets, community-supported ag, food hubs, partnerships and regional systems.
“LAMP overall was created to connect and cultivate regional food economies through public-private partnerships to support the development of business plans, feasibility studies and other strategies for value-added agricultural production and local and regional food systems. Through these grants, we hope to strengthen capacity and regional food systems development, and a lot of it’s based on community collaboration and expansion of what we call midtier value chains, so that sort of middle of the supply chain, getting products to market in these local arenas. Ultimately, the goal is to improve income and economic opportunities for producers and food businesses, and have job creation.”
In addition to the three AMS-administered LAMP programs, USDA Rural Development oversees another LAMP offering, the Value-Added Producers Grant Program, which recently closed funding applications for this year. More details about AMS’ Local Agriculture Market Program grants, toolkits and application information are available online at www.ams.usda.gov/services/grants/lamp.