New Mexico Department of Agriculture to host
Healthy Soil Program webinar

How to apply for a Healthy Soil Program grant from NMDA: A webinar for New Mexico’s Eligible Entities, farmers, and ranchers

The New Mexico Department of Agriculture’s Healthy Soil Program will host a webinar from 1:30 to 3 p.m. Friday, May 21 to show potential applicants the steps to take to be considered for a grant. The grants fund on-the-ground projects to improve soil health in the state.

Eligible Entity leaders and representatives – as well as farmers and ranchers– are invited to join the webinar. As defined in the 2019 Healthy Soil Act, Eligible Entities include tribes, nations and pueblos; land grants and acequias; Soil and Water Conservation Districts; and New Mexico State University’s Cooperative Extension Service.

Grant funding may be used for agricultural projects in New Mexico that focus on one or more of five basic soil health principles named in the Healthy Soil Act: keeping the soil covered; minimizing soil disturbance on cropland and minimizing external inputs; maximizing biodiversity; maintaining a living root; and integrating animals into land management, including grazing animals, birds, beneficial insects or keystone species, such as earthworms.

Created in 2019, the purpose of the Healthy Soil Program is to promote and support farming and ranching systems and other forms of land management that increase soil organic matter, aggregate stability, microbiology and water retention to improve the state’s soil health, yield and profitability.

To begin preparing to apply for a Healthy Soil Program grant, please go to: www.nmda.nmsu.edu/healthy-soil-program.

For more information, visit www.nmda.nmsu.edu, email hsp@nmda.nmsu.edu or call 575-646-2642.

Register