The Bureau of Reclamation is working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service to make federal funding available to improve agricultural water use efficiency throughout California. These partnership-funded projects help communities build drought resiliency through modernizing water infrastructure and maximizing water use.
Reclamation plans to award up to $2 million in fiscal year 2022 (subject to appropriations) through grants or cooperative agreements to water or power delivery authority entities, including water and irrigation districts, to help improve agricultural water delivery efficiency use. NRCS will then announce a separate program to provide funding to farms within those districts for water conservation practices to complement projects selected via Reclamation’s Notice of Funding Opportunity. Past eligible projects have included canal lining or piping, turnout metering, weir structures, and more.
View this funding opportunity at https://www.grants.gov with key words such as agricultural water use efficiency and conservation projects, CFDA – 15.572, or opportunity number R21AS00553. Proposals are due March 4 at 12 p.m. PDT and must be submitted online. They will be selected through a competitive process focusing on achieving the outcomes identified and outlined in the Notice of Funding Opportunity.
Contact Tom Hawes for more information at [email protected] or 916-978-5271 (TTY 800-877-8339).