Grants Archive

Dr. Popova and her team are evaluating the efficacy of mustard seed meal extract (MSME) on inhibiting weed seed germination (pre-emergent) and killing aboveground weed growth (post-emergent) while also determining the influence of MSME application on soil health in the field.

Conservation of an Endophytic Insect-pathogenic Fungus for Plant Protection in Organic Cropping Systems.

Year Awarded 2020

FFAR award amount $19,468

Total award amount $19,468

Location State College, PA

Matching Funders Organic Farming Research Foundation

Weeds, pests and diseases often devastate soil health, impact environmental health and threaten global food security. In partnership with the Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF), we awarded a grant to Pennsylvania State University researchers examine how to promote and conserve the beneficial soil fungus, Metarhizium robertsii. This fungus can increase plant growth and tolerance to environmental stresses, which are expected to increase with climate change.

Cover Crops for Soil Health: Demonstration of On-Farm Trial

Year Awarded 2020

FFAR award amount $19,620

Total award amount $19,620

Location Rio Grande, TX

Matching Funders Organic Farming Research Foundation

Weeds, pests and diseases often devastate soil health, impact environmental health and threaten global food security. In partnership with the Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF), we awarded a grant to the University of Texas at Rio Grande to evaluate whether cover crops can restore soil health, suppress weeds and reduce pest populations. This research provides farmers with information on cover crop selection and management that improves the long-term sustainability of organic agriculture systems.

Biosolarization: Harnessing the Sun and Organic Matterfor Weed Control

Year Awarded 2020

FFAR award amount $17,337

Total award amount $17,337

Location Sacramento Valley, CA

Matching Funders Organic Farming Research Foundation

Weeds, pests and diseases devastate soil health, impact environmental health and threaten global food security. In partnership with the Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF), we awarded a grant to The National Center for Appropriate Technology to measuring the efficacy of biosolarization—an innovative weed control that combines soil solarization (trapping solar radiation under a plastic tarp) with biofumigation (using biologically-active plant substances to suppress soil-borne pests and pathogens) – to prove that biosolarization provides weed control in a better and more timely manner.

FFAR Grant Examines Carbon Farming Effect on Soil Health

Year Awarded 2020

FFAR award amount $616,178

Total award amount $1,281,584

Location Petaluma, Calif.

Program Seeding Solutions

Matching Funders Mad Agriculture and Colorado State University

Through sustainable farming techniques, carbon can be stored long term in the soil, a process referred to as carbon sequestration. Employing carbon farm practices can further improve soil health and environmental health by increasing carbon sequestration. Knowledge gaps about commonly recommended management practices make it difficult to quantify how the carbon farm process affects carbon levels. Providing additional information about this process will help resource managers and policymakers prioritize programs and funding.

FoodShot Global Challenge #1 Innovating Soil 3.0, Deep Dive GroundBreaker Prize (Maine)

Year Awarded 2019

Total award amount $35,000

Location Freeport, ME

Program FoodShot Global Challenge

Matching Funders FoodShot Global

Grantee Institution Wolfe's Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment

FoodShot Global’s GroundBreaker Prize recognizes rising scientific stars whose research has identified technological and ecological tools that enable farmers to optimize yields and the long-term health of the land. Dr. Dorn Cox, Research Director, Wolfe's Neck Center for Agriculture and the Environment, was awarded a $35,000 GroundBreaker “Seed” Prize to support his ambitious vision of using Open TEAM to collect environmental data, providing access to comprehensive global agricultural knowledge to help growers make sustainable and profitable farm management decisions.

FoodShot Global Challenge #1 Innovating Soil 3.0, Deep Dive GroundBreaker Prize (Netherlands)

Year Awarded 2019

Total award amount $250,000

Location Wageningen, NL

Program FoodShot Global Challenge

Matching Funders FoodShot Global

Grantee Institution Wageningen University

FoodShot Global’s GroundBreaker Prize recognizes rising scientific stars whose research has identified technological and ecological tools that enable farmers to optimize yields and the long-term health of the land. Dr. Gerlinde de Deyn, Professor in Soil Ecology, Wageningen University, received a $250,000 GroundBreaker Prize to determine soil components that enhance plant productivity and allow for better absorption of nutrients, suppress disease and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

FoodShot Global Challenge #1 Innovating Soil 3.0, Deep Dive GroundBreaker Prize (Colorado)

Year Awarded 2019

Total award amount $250,000

Location Fort Collins, CO

Program FoodShot Global Challenge

Matching Funders FoodShot Global

Grantee Institution Colarado State University

FoodShot Global’s GroundBreaker Prize recognizes rising scientific stars whose research has identified technological and ecological tools that enable farmers to optimize yields and the long-term health of the land. Dr. Keith Paustian, University Distinguished Professor, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, Colorado State University, received a $250,000 GroundBreaker Prize to accelerate the global adaptation of his COMET-Farm tool systems, which provide farmers and land managers with sustainability metrics and decision support resources that promote regenerative and conservation-based agricultural practices at scale.

Open Technology Ecosystem for Agricultural Management (OpenTEAM)

Year Awarded 2019

FFAR award amount $5,000,000

Total award amount $12,008,763

Location Freeport, Maine

Matching Funders The Stonyfield Foundation, Stonyfield Organic, Wolfe's Neck Center, Our.Sci, Regen Network, UBC, MSU, AGS, CSU, Cool Farm Alliance, Soil Health Partnership, CU Boulder, General Mills

OpenTEAM, the first open source technology ecosystem in the world to address soil health and mitigate climate change, is projected to provide quantitative feedback on millions of acres of farmland by 2024. The platform offers field-level carbon measurement, digital management records, remote sensing, predictive analytics and input and economic management decision support in a connected platform that reduces the need for farmer data entry while improving access to various tools.

FFAR Grant Combats Climate Change Through Soil Health Practices

Year Awarded 2019

FFAR award amount $748,836

Total award amount $1,513,612

Location Washington, DC

Program Seeding Solutions

Matching Funders Hudson Carbon and Dagan

Farmers and ranchers are facing increasing challenges from climate change, such as more frequent droughts and flooding, which can devastate crops. Extreme weather imposes drastic changes that ultimately threaten food security. The grant’s research team, led by AFT’s Climate Initiative Director, Dr. Jennifer Moore, is developing a data-driven decision platform that can be used at various capacities to analyze current global warming potential (GWP) for major agronomic systems with the ability to prioritize key areas within states or regions.

Awarded GrantsBelow is a listing of our awarded grants that tackle big food and agriculture challenges.

56 Grants found

Scaling Quantified and Verified Soil Health, Climate and Natural Resources Outcomes from U.S. Agriculture in an Innovative Ecosystem Services Market Program

Protecting Florida Corn from Tar Spot Outbreak

A Deeper Dive: Linking Below-Ground Soil & Water Quality with Above-Ground Productivity in Organic Systems to Enhance Economic Viability & Ecosystem Resiliency

Iowa State University Organic Agriculture Program (ISU OAP)

Investigating the re-integration of organic food crops & animal production on above & belowground diversity, soil health, farm resilience & food safety.

Rodale Institution

Oregon Tilth

Oregon Tilth

Kalona Regenerative Network Producer Education Training Program

A new methods of managing human waste for improved soil health, carbon sequestration, contaminant removal, and social acceptability

Advancing DEI in Sharing Carbon & Ecosystems Services Information

Enhancing Tools to Model Climate and Environmental Impacts in Organic Agriculture Systems

University of Wisconsin-Madison Organic Grain Resource and Information Network

Integration of Agroforestry as a Transformative Solution to Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation in Organic Farms

OATS (Organic Agronomy Training Service)

FoodShot Global Challenge #3 Bioactive Foods GroundBreaker Prize (Champaign, Illinois)

Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE) Reinvestment

FoodShot Global Challenge #3 Bioactive Foods GroundBreaker Prize (Maryland)

FoodShot Global Challenge #3 Bioactive Foods GroundBreaker Prize (Massachusetts)

UC Davis Receives FFAR Grant to Help Improve Vineyard Soil Health

Protecting Soil Health & Food Safety in Almond Orchards

Tuskegee University Endowment

Grant Quantifies Farm Risk Mitigation Through Improved Soil Health

Expanding development of a predictive model to quantify the risk reduction associated with specific soil health practices for use by private & public lenders & insurers to incentivize the transition to resilient, climate-smart agriculture

FFAR-OCP Disruptive Fertilizer Technology Fellowship First Cohort

Nitrogen SAVings through soil hEalth (NSAVE): Leveraging regenerative agriculture to reduce nitrogen inputs, increase farmer profits & mitigate climate change

Quantifying the Advantages of Multi-Paddock (AMP) Grazing Compared to Conventional Continuous Grazing in the U.S. Southeast & Northern Great Plains

FFAR Grant Examines Management Practices Effect on Soil Health

FoodShot Global Challenge #2 Precision Protein, Deep Dive GroundBreaker Prize (Netherlands)

FoodShot Global Challenge #1 Innovating Soil 3.0, Deep Dive GroundBreaker Prize (Netherlands)

FoodShot Global Challenge #2 Precision Protein, Deep Dive GroundBreaker Prize (South Carolina)

FFAR and OFRF Renew Partnership to Improve Soil Health Research

FFAR & Rodale Institute Enhance Soil Health to Increase Crop Nutrients

OFRF and FFAR Fund Research to Enhance Organic Potato Nutrition

Conservation of an Endophytic Insect-pathogenic Fungus for Plant Protection in Organic Cropping Systems.

Cover Crops for Soil Health: Demonstration of On-Farm Trial

Biosolarization: Harnessing the Sun and Organic Matterfor Weed Control

FFAR Grant Examines Carbon Farming Effect on Soil Health

FoodShot Global Challenge #1 Innovating Soil 3.0, Deep Dive GroundBreaker Prize (Maine)

FoodShot Global Challenge #1 Innovating Soil 3.0, Deep Dive GroundBreaker Prize (Colorado)

FFAR Grant Provides Technical Training to Enhance Soil Health

Harnessing Multi-Trophic Chemical Ecology to Obtain Sustainable Pest Control and Improved Soil Health

Ecosystem Services Market Consortium

FFAR Awards $9.4 Million to Spur Next Leap in Agriculture: Improved Soil Health to Optimize Economic and Environmental Results for US Farmers

Cover Crop Germplasm & Breeding in Support of New Cultivar Development

Awarded Grants
Below is a listing of our awarded grants that tackle big food and agriculture challenges.