July 15, 2026
New funding and support are available to help farms strengthen their businesses, expand markets, and implement conservation practices. The NOFA-VT Farmer Services team is here to help you take advantage of it.
NOFA-VT is a partner in a new Pasa Sustainable Agriculture funding program through a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Advancing Markets for Producers (AMP) grant focused on increasing markets. This is a reconfiguration of their Climate-Smart Farming project and is designed to be an accessible funding source for farms from Maine to South Carolina.
For this funding Market Development is a very broad category that can include actual marketing expenses and activities that increase yield, protect crops, expand production, increase market channels, and more.
The Big Picture
Pasa will administer and distribute AMP funding to farmers that can pay for a variety of things and can be thought of as 3 buckets of funding:
- Business Development and Marketing Activities - Financial support of $15,000 or more to help you improve the production, business, and marketing sides of your farm. This funding bucket is broad and designed to support farmers meet their business development needs. Expanding markets needs to be the goal of all project and purchases, and we can help design your application request to best meet your needs and full advantage of this opportunity.
- Conservation Practice Installation and Technical Assistance - Financial support of $55,000 or more to implement a suite of NRCS conservation practices. There are 36 eligible practices including agroforestry practices, fencing (including exclusion fencing), high tunnels, livestock shelters, soil carbon amendment, micro irrigation, and more. A Pasa Technical Assistance Provider (TAP) will work with you to plan, map, and contract the conservation practices that meet you needs. NOFA staff can help with implementation support if needed.
- Soil Testing - Unlimited reimbursement for any and all soil testing, as many samples as you have, as many times as you want to test. Also, farms enrolled in any aspect of this program are invited to participate in Pasa's Soil Health Benchmark Study.
APPLY HERE: PASA APPLICATION FORM
Bucket Details:
Business Development and Marketing Activities
A big bucket that can include a very wide array of projects, supplies, and activities that strengthen businesses, increase yield, protect crops, expand production, increase market channels, and more. Categories of eligible activities:
- Business Development and Planning: brand development, product labels, boxes, retail packaging, professional photography for business purposes.
- Brand Building and Marketing: website design and launch, online store and market development, professionally printed brochures, flyers, pamphlets, and weather-resistant signs for fields or market stands.
- Market and Event Material: tables, racks, shelves, chairs, coolers, branded tablecloths, sales software (Shopify, Square, etc.), and hardware (tablets and card readers).
- Food Safety, Certifications, and Planning: certification fees, professionally developed operational manuals, food safety plans, standard operating procedures.
- Wash/Pack Station and Post-Harvest Handling: stainless steel surfaces, drainage mats, greens spinner, stock tanks, root washers, bulk containers, totes, and scales.
- Cooling, Storage, and Logistics: coolbots, air conditioners, chest freezers, CO2 monitors, hydrometers, thermostats, storage racks, dollies, and pallet jacks.
- Product Protection Supplies: bug/bird netting, tarps, low tunnels, anchors, sandbags
More Details:
Pasa is expansive in their consideration of eligible projects to be funded, so here are some requirements and examples to get you thinking about what needs you have that could be funded through Pasa AMP.
No single item or functioning unit can be more than $10,00 including tax, delivery, etc
Can be purchased as a used piece of equipment/supply
Needs to be tied to a commodity and field
Supplies & Equipment
Examples: BCS, equipment attachments, irrigation supplies, pump, sap pre-heater, reverse osmosis machine, hay wagon. The cost for a functioning unit must be less than $10,000 - for example if a milk bagging machine requires two components to function costing $7,000 and $4,000, the total cost of $11,000 exceeds the threshold and is not eligible.
Production & Product Protection
Examples: temporary fencing, No Fence systems, electronet, mobile chicken coop, low tunnel, insect netting, tarps, irrigation, new high tunnel skin, generator.
Processing, Marketing & Farm Store
Examples: tables, totes, coolbot/coolers, tent, signage, POS system, vacuum sealer, farm merch, travel expenses and sign up fees for sales events/expos, farm store infrastructure (ie. accessibility improvements, adding public bathroom, expanding parking area), wash/pack infrastructure and/or equipment upgrades, delivery trailer.
Miscellaneous
Examples: Certification fees (kosher, GAP, organic, etc), farm management software subscriptions.
Resources for Dairies
Examples: production improvements (plate coolers, free heaters, compressors, auto take offs), value-add equipment (bottling lines, bagging machines, cheese making supplies, packaging inventory (bottles, labels, etc.), herd management software activity monitoring systems, rotational grazing supplies, bulk tanks. Functioning unit must be less than $10,000 including tax.
Basic considerations for deciding if an activity is eligible for Business Development & Marketing funds:
Expenses need to be tied to market development> demonstrate that the expense is expanding market access for a specific commodity grown in a registered FSA field (NOFA team can help with this)
No one item can be more than $10,000 including taxes/fees.
Can include labor to install. Current labor payment rates are $50/hr for farm owners and $25/hr for farm staff.
The grant can cover professional consultants, tradespeople, equipment rental if needed to install/complete
Conservation Practice Installation and Technical Assistance
There are 36 practices that can be supported through funding including agroforestry practices, fencing (including exclusion fencing), high tunnels, livestock shelters, soil carbon amendment, micro irrigation, and more. Scroll down to see the list of the NRCS practices that can be funded. A Pasa Technical Assistance Provider (TAP) will work with you to plan, map, and contract the conservation practices that meet you needs. NOFA staff can help with implementation support if needed.
Soil Testing
Reimbursement for any and all soil testing, as many samples as you have, as many times as you want to test. Enrolls farms are invited to participate in Pasa's Soil Health Benchmark Study (email [email protected] for details).
APPLY HERE: PASA APPLICATION FORM
Farmer Services Team can help you tap this Pasa AMP funding!
We're here to help you think through the best strategy for utilizing this funding to meet your needs and take advantage of the significant money available. We can help you submit an application that will move through the Pasa enrollment process quicker.
Pasa AMP Funding FAQ
- You need to have an account with FSA to access the Business & Marketing and Conservation Practice funding (we can help you sign up and establish a relationship with VT FSA)
- All projects must be completed by March 2028 (e.g. high tunnel system funded through this program, must be put up by March 2028 unless the USDA approves an extension to Pasa)
- Payment Schedule: 80% once you have a signed contract with Pasa and 20% after verification of completion.
- Every farmer that has a contract through this program will receive an annual $1,500 participation stipend for each year you are enrolled. Participation stipends are paid each December.
- Applications are accepted on a rolling basis- first come, first serve.
- Projects and activities need to be connected to a commodity/crop and an FSA mapped field - this can be interpreted loosely (ie. funding for wash/pack improvements can be connected to the major crop you process and the field it is grown in) and we can help you with this.
- Enrolled farms are invited to participate in Pasa's Soil Health Benchmark Study.
Application Process FAQ
- There is a single application to complete to access this funding.
- The application is long as it asks lots of questions the USDA is requiring - it might take 30 mins to complete.
- After you submit an application, Pasa in-take specialist will follow-up and work with you to identify how this funding can meet your needs.
Who this Program is For?
Small Farms: Whatever you raise on your farm and wherever you sell it — farmers’ markets, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), wholesale accounts, food hubs, schools, institutions, other local and regional markets — USDA’s Advancing Markets for Producers (AMP) Initiative has resources for you to increase your sales and profitability by improving production systems, implement conservation practices, add enterprises, expand market channels, improve marketing, and more.
Eligible Conservation Practices
Financial assistance covering the cost of practice implementation and an experienced professional to help you plan and design the practices.
- Access Control (472)
- Alley Cropping (311)
- Composting Facility (317)
- Conservation Cover (327)
- Conservation Crop Rotation (328)
- Contour Buffer Strips (332)
- Cover Crop (340)
- Farmstead Energy Improvement/Energy Efficient Agricultural Operation (374)
- Fence (382)
- Field Border (386)
- Forest Farming (379)
- Forest Stand Improvement (666)
- Grassed Waterway (412)
- Hedgerow Planting (422)
- Herbaceous Wind Barriers (603)
- High Tunnel System (325)
- Irrigation System Micro Irrigation (441)
- Lighting System Improvement/Energy Efficient Lighting System (670)
- Livestock Pipeline (516)
- Livestock Shelter (576)
- Mulching (484)
- Nutrient Management (590)
- Pasture and Hay Planting (512)
- Pest Mngt. Conservation System (595)
- Prescribed Burning (338)
- Prescribed Grazing (528)
- Residue & Tillage Mngt, Reduced (345)
- Residue & Tillage Mngt., No-Till (329)
- Riparian Forest Buffer (391)
- Silvopasture (381)
- Soil Carbon Amendment (336/808)
- Trails and Walkways (575)
- Tree/Shrub Establishment (612)
- Water Harvesting Catchment (636)
- Watering Facility (614)
- Windbreak/Shelterbelt Establishment (380)
Anything else to include here?
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to NOFA-VT’s Farmer Services Team: Nancy LaRowe ([email protected]), Mia Smith ([email protected]), Kevin Haggerty ([email protected]