USDA will invest more than $1 million in three new projects led by Iowa groups to help conservation innovation in rural and urban communities through the Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) program.

State conservationist Kurt Simon with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Iowa announced the grant winners on September 8, 2016. They are Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI), Prairie Rivers of Iowa Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) and the Women, Food and Agriculture Network (WFAN). They each received national CIG grants this year and he said the projects will be completed within three years.

Grant winners will contribute matching funds for projects

Nationally, CIG funding will leverage more than $32.5 million in matching funds from cash and in-kind sources from the grantees for a total of $59.1 million, more than doubling the federal investment. USDA selected 45 of 170 applications nationally.

Two of the three Iowa projects focus on improving water quality, and the other one focuses on benefitting historically underserved customers:

Water Quality Projects granted federal funds

* The PFI project, “Small Grains, Large Gains,” received $400,912 from NRCS. PFI will test a new model for conservation adoption to increase the number of acres of small grains grown as a third crop in the corn and soybean rotation. The project will also take place in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

* The Prairie Rivers RC&D project, “Social-Ecological Systems Approach to Water Quality Improvements,” received $71,316 from USDA NRCS. This money will support the research and expansion of the Agricultural Conservation Planning Framework, a land use planning tool that optimizes the placement of conservation practices at the watershed-level. The project will focus on two small watersheds, which are part of the larger South Skunk Watershed in central Iowa.

Historically Underserved Projects

* WFAN’s project, “Women Caring for the Land: Engaging Urban Absentee Landowners to Adopt Conservation,” received $533,124 from NRCS. The project focuses on reaching out to women who inherit land, and helping with awareness, understanding, and confidence in conservation in their land.

NRCS will soon make selections for state CIG recipients. Funding for state-selected projects is limited to $75,000. For more information about the CIG program, visit nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/ia/programs/financial/cig/