Organic and Transitional Education and Certification Program

OTECP provides direct financial assistance to certified organic and transitional operations that incurred costs related to USDA organic certification or renewal, soil testing, or educational event registration in fiscal years 2020, 2021, and 2022.

OTECP provides direct financial assistance to certified organic and transitional operations that incurred costs related to USDA organic certification or renewal, soil testing, or educational event registration in fiscal years 2020, 2021, and 2022. These operations incur significant costs to obtain or renew organic certification each year, and the economic challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic have made obtaining and renewing organic certification financially challenging for many operations. Payments will be made using funds under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act; Public Law 116-136), which provided funding to respond to coronavirus by providing support for agricultural producers impacted by coronavirus, including producers of specialty crops, producers that supply local food systems, including farmers markets, restaurants, and schools, and livestock producers.

Applicants must be certified USDA organic operations or operations that are transitioning to organic production. Applicants must be located in the United States, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Unrestricted use. Assistance will be used by certified organic and transitional operations who incurred eligible costs in fiscal years 2020, 2021, 2022.

The application period for fiscal years 2020 and 2021 will be from November 8, 2021, to January 7, 2022. The application period for fiscal year 2022 began on May 16, 2022, to October 31, 2022. Any supporting documentation requested by FSA must be submitted to the applicant's FSA county office no later than 30 days from the date of the request. There are no restrictions placed on the time permitted to spend the money awarded. Method of awarding/releasing assistance: lump sum Method of awarding/releasing assistance: lump sum

The assistance will be approved and awarded by FSA to eligible applicants. Payments to eligible applicants are expected to be made once applications are processed. Payments will be prorated if total calculated payments exceed available funding.

Applicants may request reconsideration of a decision by the decision authority or appeal such decisions to a higher authority including the county and State FSA committees and the National Appeals Division. Appeal regulations in 7 CFR parts 11 and 780 apply. General eligibility provisions and other matters of general applicability that are not in response to, or result from, an individual set of facts in an individual participant's application for payment are not matters that can be appealed.