The U.S. Department of Agriculture is investing up to $2.8 billion in 70 selected projects under the first pool of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities funding opportunity, including the U.S Climate Smart Cotton Program. Ultimately, USDA’s anticipated investment will triple to more than $3 billion in pilots that will create market opportunities for American commodities produced using climate-smart production practices.
“Our visit with Georgia’s cotton producers was instrumental in promoting the USDA’s goal to increase the competitive advantage of American agriculture,” State Executive Director for the Farm Service Agency in Georgia Arthur Tripp said. “There is a strong and growing interest in the private sector and among consumers for food and fiber that is grown in a climate-friendly way. Through the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, the USDA is building and expanding opportunities for our producers to take advantage of this major market opportunity.”
The USDA is committed to supporting a diverse range of farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners through Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities. This effort will expand markets for America’s climate smart commodities, leverage the greenhouse gas benefits of climate smart commodity production, and provide direct, meaningful benefits to production agriculture, including for small and underserved producers.
Included in the first pool of Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities funding is the U.S. Climate Smart Cotton Program, which has an approximate funding ceiling of $90 million. This project will build markets for climate smart cotton and provide technical and financial assistance to more than 1,000 U.S. cotton farmers, including underserved cotton producers, to advance adoption of climate smart practices on more than 1 million acres. The project will produce millions of bales of climate smart Cotton over five years and demonstrate major carbon dioxide equivalent reductions. Led by U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol, this project will result in millions of dollars of economic benefits for farmers.
“The U.S. Cotton Trust Protocol’s Climate Smart Cotton Program is going to be a tremendous benefit for cotton growers not only in Georgia but throughout the entire cotton belt,” Matt Coley, a Georgia cotton producer, said. “The U.S. Trust Protocol is a great program that gives growers an opportunity to document and verify their farming practices, so they get an idea of what their environmental footprint is. Since the United States is one of the leading producers of cotton in the world, this is a great opportunity to provide brands and retailers with the climate smart cotton they want.”
Source: https://www.kpvi.com/