Evan Mainwaring wrote:I'm looking to develop an aquaculture system that will be integrated with the future silvopasture that we are planning. I've seen bits and pieces of information on EQIP cost sharing for silvopasture yet my NRCS agent is no too knowledgeable on the subject. I would like to shoot for CIG funding, any tips on writing the proposal for the aquaculture system and turning my local agent on to information regarding silvopasture. We're located in SW WI.
CIG - a Conservation Innovation Grant - is competitive and usually operated under annual "themes". In 2012/2013 we had droughts in Iowa, so the theme for 2013 was drought prevention! I wrote a CIG grant in 2013 and - holy cow- got it for "Improving Soil Health and Drought Resiliency of Grasslands with Keyline Silvopasture". So, know your audience's interests and shape your proposal to meet that interest. They always publish the focus issues in the request for proposals.
As for teaching your local agent about silvopasture, feed them information from their own employer! The USDA National Agroforestry Center in Lincoln, Nebraska is phenomenally well-run, and they publish a lot of great training publications
They have LOTS of stuff on
Silvopasture
The
Working Trees series is one of my favorites
http://nac.unl.edu/Working_Trees/brochures.htm
Here's
EVERYTHING they publish
http://nac.unl.edu/publications/index.htm
You can get them FREE online or they'll ship printed copies to you for FREE as well. I'd get some and hand them to your local reps to get schooled up.
Keep after it!
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