Specialty Crop Block Grant Program - Farm Bill

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) implements the Specialty Crop Block Grants through the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program (SCBGP) and the Specialty Crop Multi-State Program (SCMP) to enhance the compet

Eligible entities for the SCBGP include the State department of agriculture, agency, commission, or department of a State government responsible for agriculture within any of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Eligible entities for SCMP are the same; however, non-Federal entities residing in nonparticipating States may apply for, compete, and if merited receive a grant directly from AMS.

Producers, processors, growers, state agencies, beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers, and general public.

A grant agreement is entered into between the AMS and the eligible entity that submits the application. OMB Guidance for Grants Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards at 2 CFR § 200 and 2 CFR § 400 applies to this program. 2 CFR § 200, Subpart E - Cost Principles applies to this program.

Funding is utilized to cover expenses by State Department of Agriculture to provide Projects must enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops.

Applicants have up to 3 calendar years to use the funds.

An applicant should consult the office or official designated as the single point of contact in his or her State for more information on the process the State requires to be followed in applying for assistance, if the State has selected the program for review.

AMS only accepts electronic applications which are submitted via Grants.gov in response to the specific RFA. Please refer to the RFA for further details for submitting applications. The most current RFAs are available at www.ams.usda.gov/grants.

Criteria for selecting proposals are within guidelines established for the program as described in the RFA. The most current RFA is available via Grants.gov or www.ams.usda.gov/grants.

AMS outlines the merit review process in each grant program's RFA. After the application deadline has passed, AMS begins a three-step process to evaluate each application. Grant agreements are established with applicants based on the results of this three-step process to ensure compliance with requirement that Federal awarding agencies maintain a fair, unbiased merit review process in selecting competitively awarded grants. The Initial Qualification Screening is Step 1. In this step, each application is reviewed for overall completeness, as well as compliance with eligibility and program requirements. Applications that met these basic requirements moved forward to Step 2. Step 2 is the Technical Review. Applications are evaluated by panels of external peer reviewers with selected expertise representing various entities with programmatic knowledge. To eliminate bias, AMS assigns applications to reviewers outside of their own geographic areas and avoid project assignments associated with reviewer businesses. Each reviewer signs a conflict of interest and confidentiality agreement. Reviewers that indicate a real or perceived conflict do not review the affected application(s) and are removed. The peer review panels evaluate their assigned applications using instructions prepared by AMS officials. Individual reviewers score applications and then confer with other panel members. The scoring and discussion serve as the basis for awarding and allocating grant funds and focuses on strengths and weaknesses of each proposal. The third step is the Administrative Review (Step 3). AMS conducts a final administrative evaluation of each application in the review panels' top rankings and recommendations. In addition to the applications' scores, each award is reviewed to ensure that the recommended applications align with the grant program's statutory purpose and that the budget items were allowable and necessary. AMS also assesses the applicants' ability to account for funds used.

Awards are for 3 calendar years.